Development and validation of an educational pamphlet on care of mouth for patients with radiation therapy induced oral mucositis, South India

Abstract

Cancer is one of the most frequent causes of death and receiving a diagnosis and treatment of cancer is an extremely physically and mentally stressful experience. So, the patient and the family members should be given adequate knowledge on overcoming the complications of treatment modalities. The objectives of the study to develop a pamphlet on care of mouth for patients with radiation therapy induced oral mucositis and validate the pamphlet on care of mouth for patients with radiation therapy induced oral mucositis by health care professionals Quantitative design were used and 15 health care professionals were selected using purposive sampling technique. Tool used for this study was Structured questionnaire with ten-items rated in a 3-point Likert scale. Results: The fifteen responses were collected and analysed. Item level content validity index (I-CVI) was calculated for individual items which ranged from 0.7 - 1 and Scale level content validity (S-CVI) was calculated for complete ten items and it was found to be 0.96. SCVI should be minimum 0.80 to be acceptable as content valid S-CVI was found to be 0.80 thus the content of educational pamphlet is acceptable. The results presented in this study give an insight into the effects of educational pamphlet in improving knowledge for patients with radiation therapy induced oral mucositis and it is validated scientifically for clinical use.