Breast Cancer Coping Strategies after Diagnosis: A Six-month Follow-up

Introduction: Breast cancer is a tragic experience that accompanies stressful situations for patients. Adjustment with breast cancer has a significant effect on decreasing stress and increasing the patients' quality of life. Methods: In a prospective cross-sectional study, breast cancer patients› experiences were evaluated at Breast Cancer Research Center (BCRC), Motamed Cancer Institut (MCI), Tehran, Iran. To evaluate coping strategies in breast cancer patients, a modified Ways of Coping-cancer Version (WOC-CA) questionnaire was used. A written informed consent was obtained from the patients. Results: From a total of 187 breast cancer patients participated in this study, 177 cases followed up for 6 months later. The mean age of the patients was 47.3 ± 9.6 years. Eighty-seven percent of the patients were married, 91% of the subjects had middle and high education and most of them (83%) were housewife. Seven coping strategies were used by the patients after diagnosis and 6 months later. The most commonly used coping strategies after diagnosis included «seeking for social support», «spirituality», and «positive cognitive restructuring» and the least used coping strategy was «detachment». The most frequently used strategies 6 month after the diagnosis were «seeking for social support», «spirituality», «positive cognitive restructuring», and «making changes» and the least commonly used ones included «wishful thinking», and «keeping feelings to self-coping strategies». Conclusions: It seems that clinicians should provide enough information about the treatment and survival before the surgery. The patients concerns about the way of adjustment with the disease, especially religious thinking and advices about the way of coping with breast cancer should be considered.