Health Perception and Symptom Severity Bone Marrow Transplantation Patients

Autologous Bone Marrow Transplantation (ABMT) management involves providing complex care for severely ill and immunocompromised patients. The ability to identify% biodemographic, psychological and/or social factors which contribute to symptom development would be instrumental in the medical and nursing management of patients undergoing ABMT. This study examined the relationship between health perception and symptom severity in post ABMT patients. A secondary analysis was performed on data from a convenience sample of 20 patients. Health perceptions were measured by Ware's Health Perception Questionnaire. The severity of pain, nausea, vomiting and depression were measured using questions from the European Organization Research and Treatment Quality of Life Questionnaire and Bush Late Complications of BMT Module. Approximately 65% of the patients in this study experienced pain, 30 % experienced nausea, and 35 % experienced depression post ABMT. Vomiting was not experienced by any of the patients. Pearson's product moment correlation was calculated and showed the relationship between the total scores for health perception and symptom severity was significant ( r = -.463, p = 0.05), and revealed that the more severe the patient's symptoms were the lower their health perception was.Air Force Inst of Tech Wright-Patterson AFB OH is the author of 'Health Perception and Symptom Severity Bone Marrow Transplantation Patients', published 1998 under ISBN 9781423562245 and ISBN 1423562240.