Quality of Life of Post-Mastectomy Women Living in a Semi-Arid Region of Brazil

Emídio A. Araújo Neto, Beatriz C. A. Alves, Flávia De S. Gehrke, Ligia A. Azzalis, Virginia C. B. Junqueira, Luiz Vinicius de A. Sousa, Fernando Adami and Fernando L. A. Fonseca
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Emídio A. Araújo Neto: Laboratório de Análises Clínicas da Faculdade de Medicina do ABC, Av. Príncipe de Gales, 821, CEP 09060-650 Santo André, Brazil
Beatriz C. A. Alves: Laboratório de Análises Clínicas da Faculdade de Medicina do ABC, Av. Príncipe de Gales, 821, CEP 09060-650 Santo André, Brazil
Flávia De S. Gehrke: Laboratório de Análises Clínicas da Faculdade de Medicina do ABC, Av. Príncipe de Gales, 821, CEP 09060-650 Santo André, Brazil
Ligia A. Azzalis: Departamento de Ciências Biológicas da Universidade Federal de São Paulo, UNIFESP, Rua Professos Artur Riedel, 275, CEP 09972-270 Diadema, Brazil
Virginia C. B. Junqueira: Departamento de Ciências Biológicas da Universidade Federal de São Paulo, UNIFESP, Rua Professos Artur Riedel, 275, CEP 09972-270 Diadema, Brazil
Luiz Vinicius de A. Sousa: Laboratório de Epidemiologia da Faculdade de Medicina do ABC, Av. Príncipe de Gales, 821, CEP 09060-650 Santo André, Brazil
Fernando Adami: Laboratório de Epidemiologia da Faculdade de Medicina do ABC, Av. Príncipe de Gales, 821, CEP 09060-650 Santo André, Brazil
Fernando L. A. Fonseca: Laboratório de Análises Clínicas da Faculdade de Medicina do ABC, Av. Príncipe de Gales, 821, CEP 09060-650 Santo André, Brazil

IJERPH, 2017, vol. 14, issue 6, 1-9

Abstract: Health is the major reference regarding quality of life; when it comes to breast cancer in particular, the loss of a breast traumatically affects a woman’s life, reflecting on her quality of life. Recognizing this problem, our aim was to investigate the quality of life of women who live in a semi-arid region of Brazil after breast cancer mastectomy. In this exploratory, transversal and observational study, a Brazilian variantof the shorter version of the original instrument from the World Health Organization Quality of Life (WHOQOL-BREF), applied in the study population, was analyzed and their socio-demographic profile was obtained. The sample was composed of 50 mastectomized women. The 50 included patients comprised women at a mean age of 54 years. Most of them had finished elementary school, and their average income was one Brazilian minimum monthly wage. Regarding the data related to quality of life, the highest score was found in the social relationships domain (4.29) followed by the psychological (4.09) and environmental (3.88) domains. The lowest score observed was for the physical domain (3.48). With these findings we can say that social and psychological parameters are driving factors of the quality of life in post-mastectomy women. Therefore, these results are useful to establish strategies to improve the quality of life of breast cancer mastectomy patients.

Keywords: mastectomy; breast cancer; neoplasia; quality of life; public health (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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