Post-traumatic growth in patients diagnosed with breast cancer: The role of rumination and attitude towards cancer

This study was conducted to examine the relationship between post-traumatic growth, event-related rumination and attitude towards cancer in patients diagnosed with breast cancer. The population of the study consisted of 538 patients who were treated in Bursa Uludağ University Health Practice and Research Hospital Oncology Clinic and General Surgery Clinic between February and October 2022, and the sample consisted of 245 patients who met the inclusion criteria. The data of the study were collected with a Personal Information Form, the Post-Traumatic Growth Inventory, the Event-Related Rumination Inventory and the Questionnaire for Measuring Attitude Towards Cancer-Patient Version. To analyze the data, descriptive statistics, independent sample t-test, one-way analysis of variance, Pearson correlation, and multivariate linear regression analysis were used. In the study, it was determined that the patients' post-traumatic growth, intrusive rumination, deliberate rumination, and attitude towards cancer mean scores were 79.21±9.85, 19.45±3.29, 19.20±3.17, and 29.36±5.55, respectively. It has been determined that there is a positive relationship between post-traumatic growth and deliberate rumination, and a negative relationship between attitude towards cancer. In addition, it was determined that education level, marital status, economic status, treatment type, presence of comorbid physical disease, psychiatric disorder history before cancer diagnosis, current psychiatric disorder, deliberate rumination, attitude towards cancer are variables that affect post-traumatic growth. The results of the study reveal that rumination and cancer stigma, as well as socio-demographic characteristics, are important in post-traumatic growth in breast cancer patients. Keywords: Breast cancer, post-traumatic growth, rumination, attitude towards cancer