Espiritualidade e enfrentamento do câncer de mama em mulheres em processo de quimioterapia

Abstract

In view of the increasing incidence of breast cancer and considering the great physical impact caused by the illness, religiousness and spirituality become important ways of coping with it during treatment. This study aimed to assess the connection of spirituality/religiousness and coping with breast cancer in women on chemotherapy, as well as to assess the presence of religiousness, and the levels of quality of life related to the spirituality/religiousness found. A transversal study, qualitative and quantitative, was developed: 50 women were recruited, aged 18 or over and aged 70 or under, on chemotherapy, 25 of whom from Instituto Oncológico 9 de Julho and 25 from Hospital ASCOMCER (Associação Feminina de Prevenção e Combate ao Câncer de Juiz de Fora), both in Juiz de Fora. Regarding the quantitative aspect, to assess spiritualitty/religiouness as factor of coping it was used the Scale of Religious/Spiritual Coping elaborated and validated by Panzini and Bandeira. To measure the degree of religiousness during treatment, it was used the Scale of Religiousness of Duke University (DUREL). The quality of life was assessed by the WHOQOL-BREF Scale. The socio-demographic and clinical profile was obtained through a semi-structured questionnaire. The qualitative analysis was carried out upon two essay questions posed by the researcher. The findings appoint high levels of religiousness among the researched patients; most of them tapped into religiousness/spirituality as strategy of coping while on chemotherapy. And significant correlation of quality of life and religiousness/spirituality was observed. Finally, this study gave rise to a greater understanding of the religious and spiritual aspects engaged with the patients’ condition and of the mechanisms they used as strategies of coping.