Resilience and Quality of Life of Patients with Breast Cancer

Abstract

Introduction: Breast cancer is the most common malignancy in women. Modern research attempts to investigate the relationship between psychoemotional parameters and the length of survival of breast cancer patients. Understanding the factors which affect a higher level of resilience can have important clinical implications and can represent a guiding principle for designing psychological interventions that would accelerate recovery and improve the quality of life of cancer patients. To explore the relationship between resilience and quality of life of women with breast cancer.

Methods: The study was conducted at the Clinic of Oncology of the University Clinical Hospital Mostar, which included 60 subjects. Objective realization was achieved through using the socio-demographic questionnaire purposely made for this research, the quality of life questionnaire WHQOL-BREF and the psychological resilience questionnaire CD-RISC-25.

Results: Subjects treated with radiotherapy achieved statistically significantly higher scores on subscales of the quality of life: mental health, social relations, and the environment. No statistically significant correlations were found between the level of resilience and results in the domains of quality of life.

Conclusion: There is not a statistically significant association between resilience levels and quality of life in patients with breast cancer.