Health Bulletin, Vol. 10 No. 1, 2024.
Review article
https://doi.org/10.47960/2303-8616.2024.1.9.124
THE CONNECTION BETWEEN QUALITY AND SELF-ESTEEM IN PATIENTS WITH BREAST CANCER
Marija Brajković
orcid.org/0009-0000-2880-0796
; Faculty of Health Studies, University of Mostar, 88 000 Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina
*
Dragan Babić
orcid.org/0009-0000-2880-0796
; Faculty of Health Studies, University of Mostar, 88 000 Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina
* Corresponding author.
Abstract
Greater insight into patient's quality of life can help researchers and clinicians to use quality
of life as a measure for treatment outcomes.
Breast cancer is a stressful and causes extremely difficult physical, emotional and social
challenges. In addition to concerns about whether breast cancer will metastaize and the impact
of treatment side effects on daily life, breast cancer patients are more likely to experience
depression than patients with other types of cancer. Surgery, chemotherapy, radiation therapy,
and other forms of treatment can cause changes in a patient's physical apperance, leading to
anxiety, pain, depression, and low self-esteem.
Self-esteem is determined by positive or negative feelings as well assatisfaction and
confidence in oneself. It also refers to the belief that one is capable of coping with life's
challenges and is worthy of happiness. One study found that self-esteem is a key factor in the
growth and return to normal life in breast cancer patients. Low self-esteem has been found to
be strongly associated with depression and other psychological problems.
The diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer encompasses a critical period in a woman's life
during which she suffers from anxiety of the cancer spreading to other parts of the body,
uncertainty about the future, anxiety and depression, anger, frustration, pain, changes in self-
image, fear of losing femininity and changed confidence. Advances in the diagnosis and
treatment of breast cancer, pathological differences between this disease and other chronic
diseases, changes in self-esteem, the development of negative emotions, the experience of
everyday problems at work and in interpersonal relationships, and the development of anxiety
can lead to changes in the quality of life of patients with breast cancer.
The objective of this study is to explain the connection between the quality of life and self-
esteem of breast cancer patients.
Keywords
connection; quality of life; self-esteem; cancer; breast
Hrčak ID:
317554
URI
Publication date:
28.5.2024.
Visits: 358 *