The Illness Perception and its Relationship with Meaning of Life and Resiliency in Patients with Cancer Hospitalized to Shahid Ghazi Hospital of Tabriz in 2019

Abstract

Abstract: Introduction: Cancer is the second leading cause of death after cardiovascular disease and is considered as a crippling and incurable disease that causes anxiety, depression and decreased social energy. Therefore, identifying the factors affecting the psychiatry of these patients and intervention to improve them seems to be absolutely necessary. Therefore, this study was conducted to investigate the relationship between disease perception and meaning of life and resilience in cancer patients referred to Shahid Ghazi Hospital in Tabriz, 2019. Methods: The present study was a descriptive-correlational study that conducted with the participation of 100 cancer patients referred to Shahid Ghazi Hospital who were selected using the available sampling method. Demographic characteristics checklist, Connor & Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC), Illness Perception Scale (IPQ-R) and Meaning of Life Questionnaire (MLQ) were used to collect data. To analyze the data, descriptive and inferential statistics were performed using SPSS software version 16. Results: The majority of participants in this study were male (74%), married (72%), with gastrointestinal cancers (62%), and with a mean age of 40.85±11.88 years. The mean scores of resilience and meaning in life in these patients were 60.05±16.58 (from the range of 0-100)and 47.35±12.22 (from the range of 10-70), respectively. In addition, the highest and lowest scores were related to treatment control (3.3 out of 5) and disease coherence (2.75 out of 5) components of the MLQ questionnaire, respectively. Also, the results of Pearson correlation coefficient showed that there was a positive and significant correlation between the total resilience score with the consequences of illness, personal control, treatment control and time line acute/chronic, and between the total score of the meaning of life with illness consequences, personal control, treatment control, time line acute/chronic, and emotional representations. The results of linear regression analysis showed that the components of personal control, treatment control and the time line acute/chronic significantly periodic resilience, and the components of personal control, treatment control and emotional representations significantly predict meaning of life. Conclusion: The results of the present study indicate that cancer patients participating in the present study had moderate levels of resilience, illness perception and meaning of life. In addition, the results of the study showed that there is a statistically significant relationship between illness perception and patients' resilience and also between illness perception and meaning of life, so that with increasing illness perception, increases resiliency and meaning of life in these patients. Therefore, it is suggested that interventions be performed in cancer patients to increase their level of illness perception, which in turn increases the resiliency and meaning of life in these patients, and ultimately increases the quality of life in These patients.