Health literacy and functional exercise adherence in postoperative breast cancer patients

PURPOSE: To improve the quality of life of patients who received modified radical mastectomy, we investigated the factors affecting health literacy (HL) and exercise adherence in postoperative breast cancer patients and analyzed the relationship between them. METHODS: With random sampling method, we selected patients who received modified radical mastectomy in Nanjing First Hospital as research subjects. Then, questionnaires were given to 286 breast cancer patients who met the inclusion criteria (from January 2014 to June 2016). The questionnaire includes three parts: General Information, the Health Literacy Scale, and the Postoperative Functional Exercise Compliance Scale for Breast Cancer Patients. In this study, the count data were presented as frequency and constituent ratio and the measurement data were presented as mean ± standard error. Correlation and logistic analysis were both performed by using SPSS for Windows v.19.0. RESULTS: This study showed that the total mean score of postoperative functional exercise compliance of breast cancer patients was 82.65±12.38 points, and the total mean score of postoperative functional exercise compliance of breast cancer patients was 46.16±3.88 points. In addition, HL had a strong association with functional exercise compliance in each dimension except for economic support and proactively seeking advice compliance. CONCLUSION: HL and functional exercise compliance of breast cancer after radical mastectomy in Nanjing First Hospital were both at a moderate level and need further improvement. HL could predict the functional exercise compliance of patients.