J Nurs Acad Soc.  1995 Sep;25(3):419-430.

Folk Remedies used by Patients with Breast Cancer

• Park JM
• Chung BY

Abstract

There is a need to investigate folk remedies used by patients with breast cancer because there is little information about the subject, even though many Korean women with breast cancer have used folk remedies during and after their treatment. The purpose of this study was to investigate and describe the phenomena and the meaning of folk remedies in order to better understand patients with breast cancer and to suggest directions for comprehensive nursing care. The Questions for the study were as follows: What kinds of folk remedies do patients with breast cancer use? What are the routes of knowing about folk remedies in patients with breast cancer? What are the patterns of the usage of the folk remedies? Why do patients with breast cancer use folk remedies? What are the meanings of folk remedies to patients with breast cancer? To answer these questions, a qualitative research method was used. Thirty-nine patients were recruited from university teaching hospitals from March, 1993 to November 1994. Many of them underwent either modified radical mastectomy or received various adjuvant therapy including chemotherapy, radiation therapy, and hormonal therapy. Data were collected by in-depth interviews, observations, medical records, and analyzed step-by-step using qualitative analysis. The results were as follows: 1. Patients with breast cancer have used many different kinds of folk remedies. 2. Patients with breast cancer did not know the exact effects of the folk remedies. Also the effects could not be exactly proven by the patients. 3. Patients with breast cancer received information about many kinds of folk remedies through various communication systems, such as other patients, their families and relatives, friends, and many types of mass media. 4. To use the folk remedies was one kind of illness behavior that was used by these patients. 5. Folk remedies were used to deal with not only anxiety by the patients themselves but also as the expression of affection and concern by families and relatives. 6. The use of folk remedies was one of the adaptation behaviors in patients with breast cancer whose disease was in the terminal stage. Based on the above findings, one suggestion was made: To continue further studies on folk remedies used by other patients with cancer in order to further explain health and illness behavior of Korean people.

MeSH Terms

Anxiety
Breast Neoplasms*
Breast*
Drug Therapy
Female
Friends
Hospitals, Teaching
Humans
Illness Behavior
Mass Media
Mastectomy, Modified Radical
Medical Records
Medicine, Traditional*
Nursing Care
Qualitative Research