Abstract
Treatments for breast cancer often include interventions related to psychosocial issues such as negative body image, loss of femininity, and low self-esteem. We identified the psychological effects of a cosmetics education programme in patients with breast cancer. Cosmetic programme is a specific care designed to help patients handle appearance-related side effects. Thirty-one women with breast cancer at a university hospital in South Korea who received a cosmetics education programme were compared with 29 subjects in a control group who received the treatment as usual. Psychological factors including distress, self-esteem, and sexual functioning were assessed three times (before and after the programme, and at the 1-month follow-up). After the programme, patients in the treatment group were significantly less likely than those in the control group to rely on distress (P=0.038) and avoidance coping (P<0.001) but not on self-esteem. The mean scores in the treatment group for sexual functioning were higher than those in the control group after the treatment. Our results suggest the potential usefulness of a brief cosmetics education programme for reducing distress and reliance on negative coping strategies. Implementing a cosmetics programme for patients with breast cancer may encourage patients to control negative psychological factors.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 493-502 |
| Number of pages | 10 |
| Journal | European Journal of Cancer Care |
| Volume | 24 |
| Issue number | 4 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 1 Jul 2015 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© 2015 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
Keywords
- Avoidance
- Breast cancer
- Cosmetics education programme
- Distress
