Correlation between ways of coping and quality of life in Iranian husbands of women with breast cancer

Abstract

Background: Palliative nursing care provides the best possible quality of life (QoL) for patients who face life-threatening conditions, such as breast cancer, and their families. It seems that coping with breast cancer can affect couples' QoL. Hence, this study aimed to assess the potential role of ways of coping (WOC) in QoL among husbands of women with breast cancer. Method: In this cross-sectional study, 150 men whose wives were affected by non-metastatic breast cancer and were at least 4 months post-diagnosis, were recruited. The Persian version of the WOC questionnaire (WOCQ) and the World Health Organization's QoL brief questionnaire (WHOQoL-BREF) were used to measure WOC and QoL. ThePearson correlation test was applied to assess bivariate correlation of the variables. Results: A significant direct correlation was found between the total WHOQoL-BREF score and all subscales of WOCQ, except escape-avoidance coping (r=−0.017, P=0.830). Most dimensions of the WHOQoL-BREF and WOCQ subscales were correlated significantly and directly. Nevertheless, escape-avoidance coping had a significant indirect correlation with the physical dimension of WHOQoL-BREF (r=−0.220, P=0.007). Conclusions: Findings indicated a need for coping-based interventions in palliative nursing to improve QoL in husbands of women with breast cancer.