Psychological conditions of the quality of life of patients undergoing radiotherapy with regard to the stage of the disease and age

Introduction: Radiotherapy is one of the most popular and efficient methods of treating cancers. Apart from that it is one of the factors which evoke psychological stress in patients with cancer, because this treatment is associated with the feelings of worry and anxiety, and the occurrence of side effects. Due to this radiotherapy affects the quality of life significantly.

Aim: The aim of the research was determining the contribution of selected psychological variables (such as: the sense of coherence; subjective sense of the disease; coping strategies, assessment of the quality of life), medical variables (the stage of the disease) and demographic ones (age) with regard to the quality of life of female patients with cancer, undergoing radiotherapy.

Material and methods: The study group included 50 female patients with cancer, aged 24-78 years, undergoing radiotherapy in the Clinic of Oncology and Radiotherapy in the University Clinical Centre in Gdańsk. The research methods included Antonovsky’s Sense of Coherence Scale (SOC-29), the Visual-Analogue Scale, the Mini-mental Adjustment to Cancer Scale (Mini MAC Watson et al.), Polish adaptation by Z. Juczyński, and the EORTC Quality of Life Questionnaire (QLQ-C30).

Results: The quality of life of the female patients undergoing radiotherapy correlates with the sense of coherence, subjective sense of the disease and coping strategies in cancer. Individuals with a higher sense of coherence and a lower subjective sense of the disease, using constructive coping strategies, demonstrated a higher quality of life.

Conclusions: The sense of coherence, the kinds of applied coping strategies and the subjective sense of the disease are better predictors of the quality of life, than the stage of the disease and age of the female patients undergoing radiotherapy.