Psychological distress among breast cancer survivors: a preliminary study

An estimated of more than 30% of the cancer deaths can be prevented and about 80% of the cancer was due to environmental and lifestyle factors. Many of the study had successfully revealed the association between genetic, lifestyle and nutritional factors with breast cancer. The survivor may also face with some of the psychological distress (e.g., stress, anxiety, fatigue and depression) in their lifetime. The objective of this study was to investigate the association between psychological factors with breast cancer survivorship. DASS questionnaire was used to determine the depression, anxiety and stress level of the respondents. A total of 75 respondents who fulfilled the inclusive criteria were interviewed. They were randomly selected as the intervention and comparative group. The case made up of 35 intervention group while the comparative group made up of 34 survivors. The psychological variables (depression, anxiety and stress) were gathering by using self-reported DASS questionnaire. The majority of respondents were Chinese then followed by Malay and Indian. Majority have education until secondary school. A large number of were married, followed by, single, divorced and divorce. Majority of the respondents were also unemployed (62.2%), diagnose at stage II and had mastectomy, chemotherapy and radiation as a form of treatment. The prevalence of stress was about 44.7 % for the intervention group while only 27.7% for the comparison group. The study showed the existence of depression, stress and anxiety experienced by the respondents. For most of the respondents, they were faced with coexistence of these psychological syndromes. This result will provide some baseline information before the intervention program proceed.

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