Awareness of Radiotherapy and its Side Effects among Cancer Patients Admitted at Oncology Unit, Teaching Hospital Batticaloa, Sri Lanka

Radiotherapy is the chief non-surgical method to control malignant tumors, being used in roughly 50% of patients. This study aimed to assess the awareness of radiotherapy and its side effects among cancer patients admitted to the oncology unit, at Teaching Hospital Batticaloa. A descriptive study was carried out to assess the awareness of radiotherapy and its side effects among 74 cancer patients admitted at the Oncology unit, Teaching Hospital Batticaloa. A complete enumeration method was used to recruit participants. After obtaining informed consent, data were collected through a pilot-tested validated interviewer-administered questionnaire. Statistical Package of Social Sciences 26 was used to analyze the data. 56.8% of the respondents had a very good awareness level of radiotherapy and there were 4.1% of respondents in the very poor level of awareness category. Only 1.4% of the respondents had a very good awareness level and 58.1% of the respondents had a very poor awareness level of side effects of radiotherapy. Among socio-demographic factors, only educational level (p=0.001) was found to have a significant association with an awareness level of radiotherapy and age (p=0.021), educational level (p=0.044) was found to have a significant association with an awareness level of side-effects of radiotherapy. 59.5% of the respondents received prior information about radiotherapy and 39.2% of the respondents received prior information about side effects of radiotherapy. 43.2% of the respondents received information regarding radiotherapy and 27% of the respondents received information regarding side effects via doctors. Among sources of information, doctors (0=0.036), and nurses (p=0.043) were found to have a significant association with an awareness level of radiotherapy and doctors (p=0.00), nurses (p=0.001), family and relatives (p=0.013), cancer patients (p=0.00) and media (p=0.007) were found to have a significant association with an awareness level of side-effects of radiotherapy. Based on Findings reveal that more than half of the respondents had a very good level of awareness of radiotherapy and more than half of the respondents had a very low level of awareness of the side effects of radiotherapy. Doctors had a major role in providing information to the patients.