Social Support and Quality of Life in Breast Cancer Patients after Treatment in University Hospital: A Comparative Study

Abstract

Purposes of this descriptive reserach were to study the comparison of social support and quality of life in different factors of breast cancer patients after treatment. Samples included 128 women who visited for follow up in the university hospital during March 2012 - April 2013. The instruments were 1) the personal disease treatment and symptom distress, 2) social support questionnaires developed by Toljamo and Hentinen (2001), and 3) quality of life for breast cancer questionnaires (FACT-B) Thai version 4 developed by Cella et al. (1997). Cronbach's alpha coefficient for social support and quality of life for breast cancer were .88 and .87. Data were analyzed by descriptive, Independent t-test, and Mann Whitney test.

Results found that mean of social support was 50.58 (SD = 8.39) while mean of overall quality of life was 113.49 (SD = 19.18). There were significant different social support separared by illness distress and partner status group at .005. Meanwhile there were significant different between quality of life separated by age group, partner status, financial status, and illness distress at .005. Other factors such as, time after treatment and stage of cancer were not significant different with social support and quality of life in women with breast cancer after treatment. Results from the study could provide evidence to improve social support and quality of life in women with breast cancer after treatment.