ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Health Psychology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1656772
The Effects of Narrative Care Combined with Life Review on Psychological Distress, Meaning in Life, and Quality of Life in Advanced Cancer Patients Receiving Hospice Care: A Randomized Clinical Trial1
Provisionally accepted
- 1Cancer Hospital of Xinjiang Medical University, Urumqi, China
- 2Linyi People's Hospital, Linyi, China
- 3Hunan Cancer Hospital, Changsha, China
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To investigate the effects of narrative care combined with life review among patients with advanced cancer. Methods. Ninety patients who met the inclusion criteria were recruited from the palliative medicine ward of a tertiary-level oncology specialty hospital in Xinjiang and the community hospitals hosted by our hospital from January 2024 to January 2025. This study is a randomized controlled single-blind study.They were randomly divided into control and experimental groups (n = 45 patients per group). The control group received usual care, whereas the experimental group received narrative nursing combined with life review as a psychological intervention in addition to the usual care received by the control group.The number of interventions per patient was not less than 4 times, and the intervention period was 2 weeks. Before and after the intervention, the experimental and control groups were evaluated using the Psychological Distress Management Screening Tool, the Sense of Meaning of Life Scale for Advanced Cancer Patients, and the EORTC Quality of Life Measurement Scale QLQ-C30. Results. Eighty-three participants completed the study.No statistically significant differences were observed in psychological distress, scores for the total meaning of life scale and its individual dimensions, and scores for the total quality of life scale and its individual dimensions between the two groups before the intervention (P > 0.05). After the intervention, the distress thermometer scores were significantly lower in the experimental group than in the control group (P < 0.05). The scores for the total meaning of life scale and its individual dimensions were significantly higher in the experimental group than in the control group (P < 0.05). The scores for the total quality of life scale and its individual dimensions were significantly higher in the experimental group than in the control group (P < 0.05). Conclusion: Narrative nursing combined with life review can effectively alleviate the psychological suffering, increase the sense of meaning of life to a certain extent, and improve the quality of survival among patients with advanced cancer
Keywords: Narrative care, life review, hospice, Patients with advanced cancer, randomized clinical trial
Received: 30 Jun 2025; Accepted: 02 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Wang, Xia, Cheng and Chen. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
qinqin Cheng, qin192323@outlook.com
ling Chen, 1745333107@qq.com
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