Investigation of self-esteem in women under the treatment of breast cancer

Introduction: Breast cancer is the most common diseases in women which kills more women compared to all other cancer types. This disease and its treatments such as chemotherapy trace a wide range of symptoms and side effects and affects self-esteem in the patients, therefore the aim in this research was to investigate the self-esteem in women under breast cancer treatment. Methods: this descriptive-cross-sectional study was conducted in 2016 for all women with breast cancer under treatment referring to Ghazi, Alzahra, and International and Shams hospitals in Tabriz. 166 research samples were available. Data collecting tools included personal-social questionnaire and Rosenberg´s Self – Esteem Scale. Results: the mean score for self-esteem was 0.4±0.3, so according to acceptable self-esteem score range of (-1 to +1), the self-esteem of the patients was good. Conclusion: based on the obtained results it seems that helping the patients to maintain good self-esteem in the patients and receiving support from healthcare officials is needed to help the patients bear spiritualphysical effects of the patients receiving treatment for breast cancer

Keywords:

breast cancer , self-esteem