The relations of resilience and metacognitions with fear of recurrence of cancer survivors and their caregivers

The aim of this study was to evaluate the relationship between resilience and metacognition with fear of recurrence of cancer survivors and caregivers. The study was carried out in medical oncology clinic of four hospitals in Ankara. 112 patients and 112 caregivers were included in the study. Data were collected between 1 October 2018 and 1 June 2019 using the descriptive data forms, Psychological Resilience Scale for Adults, Metacognition-30 Scale, and Fear of Cancer Recurrence Inventory. In the evaluation of the data;, correlation and regression analysis were used. According to the results of the study, there is a negative correlation between survivors' resilience and metacognitions with fear of recurrence scores. It was determined that there was a positive correlation between the metacognitions scores of survivors, and the fear of recurrence and the metacognitions levels of caregivers. It was determined that there was a positive correlation between total fear of recurrence and all fear of recurrence subscale scores of caregivers with fear of recurrence. It was found that there was a positive correlation with the total fear of recurrence levels of the caregivers with no fear of recurrence with all sub-dimensions except the reassurance and coping strategies subscales. In line with these results, it can be said that the levels of fear of recurrence of survivors and caregivers may be affected by resilience and metacognition levels of each other. Therefore, it can be suggested to adopt approaches to increase the resilience level and to change the metacognitions positively in decreasing the fear of recurrence of the survivor and caregivers during the survival process starting from the time of diagnosis until the end of life.