Effect of application of honey on radiation-induced mucositis in patients undergoing radiotherapy at selected government hospitals, Kolkata, West Bengal

A pre-experimental study was undertaken to assess effect of application of honey on radiation induced mucositis in patients undergoing radiotherapy at selected Govt. Hospitals, Kolkata, West Bengal. The conceptual framework was adopted for the study was based on Imogene King’s systems Theory of Goal Attainment model. One group pre-test post-test design was adopted. Thirty head and neck cancer patients were selected from radiotherapy department of N.R.S Medical College & Hospital by non-probability convenience sampling technique. Data collected by semi-structured questionnaire and WHO Oral Mucositis Assessment Scale. In pre-test majority (70%) of patient’s falls under grade 3 and 6.7% falls under grade 1 mucositis. In the other hand in post-test there were 43.3% under grade 3 and no mucositis 3.3%. The mean score of oral mucositis after intervention was lower than mean score of before intervention which is statistically significant as evident from the calculated ’t’ value of 3.88 which is higher than the tabulated ‘t’ value (2.05) for df (29) at 0.05 level of significance. The findings of the study can be implicated in nursing practice, nursing education, nursing administration and nursing research. It was recommended that a quasi-experimental study is required to find out the effectiveness of application of honey.