Causal links in QOL sub-domains accentuate greater support for physical and emotional well-being of breast cancer survivors
Group psychotherapy or support group (SG) interventions have been reported to improve the quality of life (QOL) of cancer patients. For an improved life of Malaysian breast cancer survivors, facilities for SG interventions have been set up both in the urban and rural areas of the country. However,...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Conference or Workshop Item |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
2010
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://irep.iium.edu.my/22649/ http://irep.iium.edu.my/22649/ http://irep.iium.edu.my/22649/1/Causal_links_in_QOL_sub-domains_accentuate_greater_support.pdf |
| Summary: | Group psychotherapy or support group (SG) interventions have been reported to improve the quality of
life (QOL) of cancer patients. For an improved life of Malaysian breast cancer survivors, facilities for SG
interventions have been set up both in the urban and rural areas of the country. However, the impact of
support group participation on QOL of these patients, and factors that may influence it have remained
elusive. This study, examines the impact of SG participation on the QOL of Malaysian breast cancer
survivors using the Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy (FACIT) questionnaire. Multiple
comparisons using the Tukey HSD show that the QOL measure for rural SG participants are significantly
lower (F(2,55) = 14.570; p < 0.01) than for urban SG participants. Analysis of the interrelationships
between the QOL sub-domains indicated that functional wellbeing (FWB) fully mediates the effects of
physical wellbeing (PWB) and emotional wellbeing (EWB) on social wellbeing (SWB). In addition, PWB
was relatively more influential than EWB in determining patients’ FWB and SWB while PWB, EWB and
FWB collectively explained about 25% of the variability in SWB. Findings of this study thus indicate that
measurement of QOL is relative to patients’ location i.e., urban or rural, which in turn reflects the
patients’ education and financial background. |
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