Association Between Body Image and Quality of Life of Women Who Underwent Breast Cancer Surgery

Camila Zanella Battistello, Eduardo Remor (), Ícaro Moreira Costa, Mônica Echeverria de Oliveira and Andréa Pires Souto Damin
Additional contact information
Camila Zanella Battistello: Postgraduate Program in Psychology, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre 90035-003, Brazil
Eduardo Remor: Postgraduate Program in Psychology, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre 90035-003, Brazil
Ícaro Moreira Costa: Health Sciences Center, Universidade de Fortaleza, Fortaleza 60811-905, Brazil
Mônica Echeverria de Oliveira: Psychology Service, Hospital de Clinicas de Porto Alegre, Porto Alegre 90035-903, Brazil
Andréa Pires Souto Damin: Mastology Service, Hospital de Clinicas de Porto Alegre, Porto Alegre 90035-903, Brazil

IJERPH, 2025, vol. 22, issue 7, 1-14

Abstract: Breast cancer is a condition characterized by the uncontrolled growth of breast cancer cells. The treatment for the disease, such as surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and systemic therapy, can significantly impact patients’ body image and overall quality of life. This study aimed to evaluate body image perceptions and cancer-related quality of life in women who underwent surgical treatment for breast cancer at a reference hospital in southern Brazil. One hundred six women with breast cancer, aged 21 to 93 years ( M = 55.3; SD = 12.9), participated in this cross-sectional study. They responded to the Body Image and Relationships Scale (BIRS), Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy for Breast Cancer scale (FACT-B), and a questionnaire on clinical and sociodemographic variables. Multiple linear regression analyses revealed that general perceived body image, as measured by BIRS, was significantly predicted by younger age and chemotherapy ( F (2, 99) = 7.376, p = 0.003). These predictors accounted for 11.2% of the variance in BIRS (adjusted R 2 = 0.112). Hierarchical multiple regression analysis indicated that cancer-related quality of life was significantly predicted by younger age, use of psychiatric medication, and body image domains, including strength and health, social barriers, and appearance and sexuality. The complete model, encompassing all predictors, was significant ( F (5, 96) = 15.970, p < 0.001) and explained 42.6% of the variance in FACT-B (adjusted R 2 = 0.426). Clinicians should be aware that younger patients who have undergone chemotherapy for breast cancer may experience changes in body image perception following surgery. Contributing factors such as younger age, use of psychiatric medications, and negative postoperative body image may be associated with a diminished quality of life related to cancer.

Keywords: body image; breast cancer; oncology; quality of life; surgical treatment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/22/7/1114/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/22/7/1114/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:22:y:2025:i:7:p:1114-:d:1702186

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().