Distress after Chemotherapy in Women with Breast Cancer

A Research Paper Critique
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A Research Paper Critique
Introduction
Chemotherapy is a common treatment given to patients diagnosed with cancer, and it has been shown to increase their survival rates in the past few years. However, several studies have revealed that chemotherapy treatment leads to psychological distress such as anxiety and depression and numerous physical signs such as fatigue, hair loss, vomiting, and severe pain (Kim et al., 2009). In the article "Changes in Fatigue, Psychological Distress, and Quality of Life After Chemotherapy in Women with Breast Cancer," Pok-Ja Oh and Jung-Ran Cho (2018) examined the changes and interrelatedness between fatigue-depression-anxiety symptoms and quality life in cancer care in women diagnosed with breast cancer. Although the article has produced substantial results showing increased psychological distress and fatigue from both pre-and post-chemotherapy treatment, there are limitations related to the sample size, generalization of the results, and replicability.
Summary of the Article
Oh, and Cho (2018) used a sample size of 50 breast cancer patients to examine the interrelationship between depression, anxiety, fatigue symptoms, and quality of life during cancer treatment and care. The researchers used different measures to identify these relationships. For instance, they used a Korean Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy Fatigue (FACT-F) scale on the fatigue variable. The scale comprised thirteen evaluated items on a 5-point Likert Scale that ranged from zero to four. They used a Korean validated Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) on the psychosocial distress, which consisted of seven items evaluated using a 4-point scale ranging from zero to three. On the other hand, they measured quality of life using the Korean Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy Fatigue (FACT-F) scale. The scale contained thirty-seven items divided into five subscales, and they ranged from 0 to 148. The higher the score, the better level of quality of life the patient experienced. All these data collection procedure measures are clearly stated and can easily be replicated by other researchers.
Introduction Review
In the introductory part, the authors state that the previous longitudinal studies have failed to give consistent results on the evolution of the fatigue-anxiety-depression symptoms among patients undergoing adjuvant chemotherapy, giving them a chance to examine the variability of these changes. Reading through the article in the introductory part, one can identify two research questions the authors focused on answering. These questions focus on identifying the influences that psychological distress and fatigue cause on breast cancer patients' quality of life. Also, they focus on identifying the interrelationships and changes in fatigue-depression-anxiety symptom clusters during cancer treatment. However, these research questions are not written correctly, which might confuse the reader and fail to understand or notice them since they have not been phrased in a question format. Also, the problem statement, objectives, aims, and hypothesis are missing making it incomplete.
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