Basic hope of patients with relapse of cancer and their self-efficacy of control of pain and coping with it

Introduction: The purpose of our research is to evaluate the impact of basic hope of cancer patients with relapse of disease on their self-efficacy of their control of pain and coping with it.

Material and methods: Two groups of patients in palliative chemotherapy (50 women and 50 men) participated in the study. They filled 4 quantitative short questionnaires: BHI-12 (basic hope), GASES (self-efficacy), BOCA (control of pain), CSU (pain coping strategies).

Results: Basic hope of patients with relapse of cancer strong and positively correlates with their self-efficacy, particularly in men’s group. The analysis of regression of basic hope and self-efficacy demonstrate significant impact on the dependant variables – control of pain and pain coping strategies of examined cancer patients.

Conclusions: The patients with relapse of cancer do not lose their high level of basic hope and self-efficacy. These psychological resources make it possible for them to control own pain, to cooperate with medical staffs and to use flexibly different strategies of coping with own pain, but without positive reappraisal of pain. The examined patients reject this coping strategy of pain.