Effectiveness of cosmetic rehabilitation on the body image of oral cancer patients in Taiwan

Goals of the work: Oral tumors and their treatment cause obvious changes in disfigurement and functions of cancer patients. Therefore, some kind of strategy to improve personal appearance is important in nursing care. This prospective study intended to verify the effects of a cosmetic rehabilitation program on the body image of oral cancer patients. Materials and methods: A single-blind quasi-experimental design with repeated-measures design was used in this study. The experimental group received instruction on cosmetic rehabilitation, whereas the control group received regular nursing care. The experimental group and control group each had 22 subjects who were requested to complete the questionnaires throughout the regular follow-up (during admission, after 6 weeks, and after 12 weeks). The Multidimensional Body-Self Relations Questionnaire-Appearance Scales (MBSRQ-AS) was selected for data collection. Main results: The results showed that subjects in both experimental and control groups reported similar levels of body image in each subscale of MBSRQ-AS before conducting cosmetic rehabilitation. The appearance evaluation subscale was the only one that changed significantly in both the experimental and control groups during the research period. Nevertheless, results of item comparison showed that cosmetic rehabilitation had improved the scores of "I like the way I am," "most people think that I am good looking," "body weight," and "face" in the experimental group. Conclusion: Present study confirmed that cosmetic rehabilitation had similar effects on the body image of oral cancer patients. Integration of cosmetic program into the routine nursing care for oral cancer patients is highly recommended. © 2008 Springer-Verlag.