Educational Intervention for Promoting Self-management of Patients with Cancer Pain: A Literature Review

Abstract

Purpose: The aim of this study was to describe research trends and content of educational intervention for promoting self-management of patients with cancer pain. Methods: A literature search for papers published from January, 2000 to July, 2017 was conducted using the keywords “cancer pain” and “self-management” “self-care” on electronic databases MedLine, CINAHL, and Ichushi. Results: Three Japanese language papers and twenty-seven English language papers were used for analysis. Many papers had been made public since 2010, and several interventional studies using an educational intervention program have been published. An educational intervention program is a combination of a main session and a follow-up. Additionally, this method has several types of individual intervention. The main sessions included knowledge and skills required for medication, self-monitoring of pain, and the method of communicating with the doctor. The outcome of educational intervention was an increase knowledge of cancer pain and the reduction of the pain itself. Conclusion: Because there are few intervention studies about self-management of cancer pain, it is a task to develop the educational intervention program for patients with cancer pain according to the intervention method and educational contents which identified in this result in Japan.