Jonas Sąlyga, Vitalija Paškevičienė,, Geriuldas Žiliukas

Abstract

Breast cancer is the most common malignant disease which accounts for about 32 per cent of all cancer types in women. Breast cancer worsens not only woman‘s general health, but also the quality of her life. Therefore, this issue does not lose its relevance, because a strong focus on patients with breast cancer quality of life. Research aim – to evaluate breast cancer patients‘ quality of life. Research method. A quantitative survey was carried out. Means used: a questionnaire which is modeled on standardized questionnaires EORTC QLQ – C30 and EORTC QLQ – BR23, and SF – 36 questionnaire. Descriptive data analysis was done by using MS Excel 2003 spreadsheet. The sample consisted of 59 patients. The study was conducted in accordance with ethical principles. Research results. It was found out, that women with breast cancer while evaluating their general quality of life related to physical health usually marked their leisure (41 per cent), and work limitations due to physical problems (64 per cent). Their general health assessment was poorer than usual too (35 per cent). Regarding the respondents‘ education, women with higher education evaluated their health slightly poorer. After the analysis of post-operative characteristics of quality of life, most women marked, that they felt negative emotions due to the cosmetic defects (35 per cent). These defects changed their lifestyle (59 per cent) and they felt a loss of femininit (24 per cent). It is worth noting, that married women felt more often less feminine, than the divorced or widowed respondents, when comparing married and divorced/widowed respondents‘ answers to the question of whether they felt at least once less feminine, because of their disease and treatment. Breast cancer patients‘ quality of life was influenced by psycho-emotional state of these aspects: arising of anxiety, fear of desease recurrence or spread (78 per cent), depression (56 per cent), feeling of inferiority (32 per cent), personality (49 per cent) and spiritual status changes (47 per cent). Conclusion. Patients‘ with breast cancer quality of life is influenced by physical, mental health, psycho-emotional status and post-operative period. Therefore, special attention should be paid to the improvement of women‘s psycho-emotional status and quality of life.

Keyword(s): breast cancer; oncological breast disease; quality of life.
DOI: 10.5200/sm-hs.2015.109
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