Objective To investigate the effect of distance education guidance on immune-related adverse events (irAEs) and quality of life in patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

Methods A total of 56 NSCLC patients receiving immunotherapy were selected as control group, and another 56 NSCLC patients receiving immunotherapy were selected as trail group. The control group was given regular education guidance, while the trial group was given distance education guidance, including the establishment of a distance education team, the construction of a network education platform, standardized health education, multi-dimensional health education, and the online distance guidance of irAEs. The incidence and severity of irAEs after intervention, quality of life before and after intervention, satisfaction rate and re-admission rate were compared between the two groups.

Results At three months after intervention, the incidence rates of nausea, abdominal pain, arthralgia and diarrhea in the trial group were lower than those in the control group (P>0.05). Compared with the control group, the severity of skin dryness, itching, rash, fatigue and cough in the trial group was lower (P>0.05). At six months after intervention, the total score of quality of life in the trail group was (113.41±6.02), which was significantly higher than (98.23±2.01) in the control group (P < 0.05). At six months after intervention, the total satisfaction rate of the trail group was 94.64% (53/56), which was significantly higher than 82.14% (46/56) of the control group (P=0.039); the re-admission rate of the trail group was 10.71% (6/56), which was significantly lower than 25.00% (14/56) of the control group (P=0.048).

Conclusion Distance education guidance can promote the online communication between doctors and patients, reduce the re-admission rate of patients, improve the satisfaction rate of NSCLC patients, and improve the quality of life of patients.