Time perspective and attitudes towards preventive mastectomy

Abstract

Introduction and objective: Breast cancer is considered to be the most common cancer among women and a significant challenge for prevention. The aim of this study was to determine the relationship between the time perspective (focus on the past, present or future) and attitudes towards prophylactic mastectomy as one of the methods of breast cancer prevention available in healthy people who are predisposed to the disease because of factors including mutations in the BRCA1 and/or BRCA2 genes. Materials and methods: The study was conducted from June to July 2019 and included only women over 18 years old. The project was implemented in public and generally accessible spaces in the western part of Poland. The Temporal Perspective Inventory by Philip Zimbardo and John Boyd in the Polish adaptation by Aneta Przepiórka and the author’s Anonymous Questionnaire for Respondents were used for the analysis, with a view to deepening the knowledge about the subjective life situation of the respondents and their awareness in the field of cancer prevention, and identifying their attitudes related to preventive mastectomy. Results: The results of the study revealed that the level of knowledge of the surveyed women increased with an increase in their positive orientation to the past and future. It was noted that time orientations differed depending on the presence of cancer in the family of the examined woman. Women with a negative focus on the past were slightly more ready to undergo prophylactic mastectomy. Conclusions: It seems reasonable to include the diagnosis of women’s individual temporal perspectives in the development of personalised programs and activities in the fields of oncological prevention and social psychoeducation.