Studying the relation between mental adjustment to cancer and health-related quality of life in breast cancer patients

Abstract

Background: Health-related quality of life in cancer patients has been interested to researchers in the domain of health in recent decades. Mental adjustment to cancer is a concept known as an important indicator of life quality, well-being and health of cancer patients. The aim of this paper is to examine the relation between mental adjustment to cancer and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) among some women with breast cancer. Methods: 100 patients were non-randomly selected from hospitals and oncology clinics in Kermanshah and Shiraz cities, Iran. These patients completed the functional assessment of cancer treatment-breast (FACT-B) in order to measure HRQoL and mini-mental adjustment to cancer questionnaire (Mini-MAC). Data were analyzed by using correlation and regression. Results: The results show that helplessness/hopelessness (58%), fighting spirit (40%), fatalism (33%) and preoccupation anxiety (18%) explain the variance of HRQoL. Conclusions: According to the findings, there is no relation between cognitive avoidance styles and HRQoL, and it can be concluded that coping styles helplessness/hopelessness and fighting spirit are the best predictors of HRQoL in patients with breast cancer. Consequently, the evaluation of the coping styles and emergency interventions in order to enhance coping with illness in cancer patients, decrease the sense of helplessness/hopelessness and anxiety are recommended, which in turn are accompanied by increasing HRQoL.