Death worries and quality of life in younger breast cancer survivors.

摘要

Cancer is the leading cause of death by disease in women 20 to 39 years of age. Surprisingly, a significant number of women develop breast cancer at age 45 or younger. Women treated for breast cancer experience many physical and psychological problems during survivorship—in particular worry about death and fear of breast cancer recurrence. This worry about death may affect physical, psychological, and general quality of life (QOL) domains. The purpose of this study is to describe how worry of death is related to physical outcomes, psychological outcomes, self-efficacy in dealing with breast cancer, and overall QOL as measured by the Impact of Events Scale. A theoretical model for predicting QOL developed by Ferrell and colleagues has directed the analysis.