Problems Experienced by Spouses of Turkish Patients With a Stoma: A Descriptive, Cross-Sectional Study

The spouses of persons with an ostomy can experience various problems with regard to their new life situation. PURPOSE: A study was conducted to determine the problems encountered by spouses of people with an intestinal stoma and examine practices used to address these problems. METHODS: The descriptive, cross-sectional study was conducted between November 2, 2015, and February 29, 2016, at 3 university hospitals in Istanbul, Turkey. Eligible participants were spouses of patients who were 18 years of age or older and who had a stoma for at least 3 months. During separate interviews with researchers, patients answered 15 open- and closed-ended demographic and clinical background questions, and spouses answered 10- open- and closed-ended questions regarding their demographic characteristics and 40 open- and closed-ended questions addressing the physiological, work/life, psychological, and economic problems they experienced as the spouse of a person with a stoma and how they handled these issues. Data were entered into statistical software for analysis; frequency and percentage distributions were reported. RESULTS: Participants included 80 patients and their spouses; 50 (62.5%) patients were male (average age 56.53 +/- 14.57 years), 55 (68.8%) did not work after the operation, 58 (72.5%) had an ileostomy, and 62 (77.5%) were cared for by their spouse. Spouses included 50 women (62.5%), average age 54.14 +/- 13.63 years. Couples had been married an average of 29.87 +/- 14.52 years. The most common problems reported by partners were odor (51, 63.7%), housework (27, 33.7%), anxiety (26, 32.5%), loud gas (25, 31.2%), cutting the adapter to the size of the ostomy (25, 31.2%), desperation/pessimism (24, 30.0%), and stoma appearance (23, 28.7%). Spouses cited a variety of coping mechanisms, including sleeping in different bedrooms and attributing the health problem to god's will, which sometimes added to the psychological issues they experienced. CONCLUSION: Spouses of stoma patients experience psychological and social issues and could benefit from attention to their concerns and demonstrations of how to provide care for their partners.