Abstract
The purpose of this study is to clarify the changes over time of the QOL of the adult stage early breast cancer patients for pre-operative and a single year post-operative period, for reviewing from the standpoints of personal, pathological, psychological and cognitive aspects. Investigations were conducted using the self-rated questionnaire including the categories as QOL-ACD, QOL-ACD-B, GSES, SRS-18, resilience scale and personal attributes for the different periods of pre-operative, 1 week, 2 weeks, 3 months and 1 year after surgery. The two-way layout repeated measures ANOVA of complete data of 44 subjects revealed the following:
1.In terms of the disease factor, especially lymph node metastases, the deteriorated activity QOL is recognized during the one to 2 weeks after operation among the subjects with the dissected axillary lymph nodes so rehabilitation exercise and support to complement the patients' shortage of self-care on and after the day of surgery. No significant difference of QOL was identified with the extent of breast dissection.
2.In terms of psychological and cognitive factors, QOL is low among the highly depressive patients group in pre-operative stage including the QOL-ACD total score, social attitude QOL and face scale QOL. It suggests the necessity of enhancement of nursery assistance during the pre-operative early stage for the patients expected to be hospitalized both with the emotional assistance where adequate information about the breast cancer is provided to the affected outpatients and cognitive assistance where understanding of the breast cancer and its primary therapy is facilitated. In terms of the resilience, interaction is identified between positive future orientation and social attitude QOL;during the pre-operative and one year period after operation, however, no significant difference of QOL is seen among the highest and lowest QOL groups.
3.In terms of personal factors, psychological condition QOL with husband was significantly lower than those without spouse at the time of 2 weeks after surgery.
