The effect of fear of contamination on functionality in breast cancer patients in the pandemic

Abstract

Aim: We aimed to evaluate the impact of the fear of contamination induced by COVID-19 on functionality in women with breast cancer. Methods: The present study included women with diagnosed breast cancer (n=75) under treatment in Istanbul Florence Nightingale Hospital and healthy (n=69) women, for a total of 144 volunteers. The participants were asked to fill out the Sociodemographic Data Form, Anxiety Sensitivity Index-3 (ASI-3) and the survey to evaluate the impact of fear of infection and cleaning behavior due to COVID-19 on functionality. Results: No statistically significant difference was found between the women with and those without diagnosed breast cancer regarding the impact of fear of infection due to COVID-19 on all functionality parameters (all parameters, p>0.05). In the group with breast cancer, the effect of contamination anxiety on and cleaning behavior on functionality performance was significantly higher in people with underlying disease (p=0.044, p=0.013) and smoking (p=0.0234, p=0.0147). Conclusion: According to the study, smoking and the presence of a comorbidity in breast cancer patients may have a negative effect on the functionality effect of the fear of contamination. In terms of psychiatric intervention, the parameters affected by functionality should be considered.