Objective To explore the application of enhanced recovery after surgery (ERAS) combined with the active health concept in the nursing care of lung cancer patients, and its impact on patients’ compliance with rehabilitation exercises, hospitalization satisfaction, incidence of postoperative complications, and length of hospital stay. Methods A prospective study design was adopted. Lung cancer patients admitted to the Department of Thoracic Surgery, West China Tianfu Hospital of Sichuan University between April and July 2025 were enrolled. Using a non-concurrent control method in a quasi-experimental study, the patients were divided into two groups. The control group received routine ERAS nursing, while the intervention group received additional active health interventions on top of ERAS. These interventions included patient participation in personalized plan formulation, patient empowerment (self-evaluation and independent recording of exercise status), daily one-on-one bedside guidance with positive psychological encouragement from nurses, and optimized perioperative education protocols. Four indicators were compared between the two groups: daily exercise frequency from admission to one month after discharge, hospitalization satisfaction, incidence of postoperative complications, and length of hospital stay. Results The intervention group demonstrated significantly better outcomes than the control group in terms of average daily in-hospital exercise frequency (2.2±0.5 vs. 1.6±0.7; t=5.797, P<0.001), planned average daily out-of-hospital exercise frequency on the day of discharge (3.2±0.9 vs. 1.9±0.8; t=9.038, P<0.001), actual average daily out-of-hospital exercise frequency (3.6±1.5 vs. 2.4±1.4; t=4.932, P<0.001), and satisfaction score on the day of discharge (97.9±4.4 vs. 95.8±5.5; t=2.378, P=0.019). No statistically significant difference was observed between the two groups regarding the incidence of postoperative complications or length of hospital stay (P>0.05). Conclusions The nursing model combining ERAS with the active health concept can effectively increase the frequency of rehabilitation exercises and improve hospitalization satisfaction among lung cancer patients. This combined model is superior to ERAS nursing alone and is worthy of clinical promotion and application.
Objective To evaluate the effect of nursing intervention based on active health concept on self-care ability, anxiety, and depression of patients with lung cancer during perioperative period. Methods Using a quasi-randomized controlled trial design, patients with lung cancer surgery in Department of Thoracic Surgery, West China Tianfu Hospital of Sichuan University from April to July 2025 were selected and divided into an intervention group and a control group according to the time of admission. The control group received routine enhanced recovery after surgery (ERAS) nursing, while the intervention group received multi-stage active health intervention based on ERAS. Exercise of Self-care Agency Scale (ESCA) and Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) were used to evaluate the nursing effects before intervention (T0), at the end of intervention (T1) and 1 month after discharge (T2). Linear mixed models were used for statistical analysis. Results A total of 132 patients were enrolled, including 69 in the intervention group and 63 in the control group. At T0, demographic and clinical characteristics were comparable between the two groups (P>0.05), except for depression scores (6.39±1.38 vs. 6.85±1.46, P<0.05). At T1 and T2, the ESCA scores in the intervention group were significantly higher than those in the control group (T1: 24.50±6.07 vs. 19.04±13.76, P<0.05; T2: 25.32±9.45 vs. 20.03±8.47, P<0.05). Furthermore, both anxiety scores (T1: 15.80±1.24 vs. 17.70±0.82; T2: 17.34±0.83 vs. 17.90±0.41) and depression scores (T1: 5.49±0.92 vs. 6.35±0.60; T2: 5.35±0.56 vs. 6.06±0.35) were significantly lower in the intervention group compared to the control group (P<0.05). Conclusions Perioperative nursing based on the concept of active health can effectively improve the self-care ability of patients with lung cancer and relieve anxiety and depression. This approach provides empirical evidence for deepening patient-centered care within ERAS and is worthy of further clinical promotion and optimization.