Yousefi Afrashteh M, Masoumi S. Psychological well-being and death anxiety among breast cancer survivors during the Covid-19 pandemic: the mediating role of self-compassion.
BMC WOMENS HEALTH 2021;
21:387. [PMID:
34732193 PMCID:
PMC8564789 DOI:
10.1186/s12905-021-01533-9]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/14/2021] [Accepted: 11/01/2021] [Indexed: 12/01/2022]
Abstract
Background
Despite the abundance of clinical data available for Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), little research on the psychological well-being of breast cancer survivors has been published. We investigate the extent to which self-compassion accounted for the association between psychological well-being (depression, anxiety) and death anxiety in breast cancer survivors.
Methods
A cross-sectional study design was applied. Participants were recruited from three departments of oncology in Zanjan, Iran. Data were collected from 210 breast cancer patients. Participants completed self-report measures. Pearson correlation coefficient was used to assess the relationship among the study variables. Bootstrapping analyses were used to test the significance of indirect effects.
Results
Correlational analyses revealed that depression and anxiety were significantly and positively related to death anxiety (r = 0.77, p < 0.01; r = 0.85, p < 0.01, respectively) and negatively to self-compassion (r = − 0.48, p < 0.01; r = − 0.53, p < 0.01, respectively). Bootstrapping analyses revealed significant indirect effects of depression (β = 0.065, SE = 0.35, p < 0.03, 95% CI [LL = − 0.0083, UL: − 0.1654]) and anxiety (β = 0.089, SE = 0.09, p < 0.04, 95% CI [LL = − 0.0247, UL: − 0.1987]) on death anxiety through self-compassion.
Conclusions
Findings from this study indicate that self-compassion may be considered as one treatment strategy to improve psychological well-being of cancer patients in the new context of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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