Acupuntura, religiosidade, qualidade de vida e sobrevida de pacientes com carcinoma de células escamosas de cabeça e pescoço

Abstract

This thesis aimed to identify the effect of acupuncture on quality of life and the role of religiosity, spirituality and quality of life in the survival of patients with head and neck cancer. This is the research “Acupuncture, religiosity, quality of life and survival of patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma”, developed from 2015 to 2021 in Montes Claros MG. The first study is a two-arm, parallel, single-blind clinical trial. The population included was 107 patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (55 in the no-intervention group and 52 patients included in the acupuncture intervention group). Patients in the intervention group received traditional and auricular acupuncture in weekly sessions during radiotherapy treatment, and patients in the control group did not receive intervention with acupuncture. Data collection for this study took place from 2015 to 2018, the WHOQOL-Bref instrument was used to assess quality of life. The second study is a longitudinal case-control study, the included population was 245 participants (118 patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck and 127 controls without cancer); data were collected at Hospital Dilson Godinho, Brazil, from May 2019 to May 2021. All patients signed an informed consent form. As data collection instruments, the Spiritual Religious Coping Scale (CRE) was used for religious and spiritual coping, the Duke DUREL to assess religiosity, the WHOQOL-Bref to assess quality of life, the WHOQOL SRPB to assess spirituality, religiosity and personal beliefs, the BDI to assess depression symptoms, BDA to assess anxiety symptoms and the Mortality Information System database for death cases. From the collected data, two products were produced. The first article identified that the use of traditional and auricular acupuncture had a positive impact on the physical, psychological, social, environmental and general quality of life. The available information suggests benefits and provides a context for patients and clinicians to decide whether acupuncture is a treatment option. The second article found that patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma who had better quality of life in the physical and psychological domain and greater organizational religiosity had greater survival. The findings highlight the importance of spiritual care in cancer treatment. It is hoped that these data can support public strategies for approaching and managing patients with head and neck cancer, with the aim of providing better quality of life and longer survival for these patients.