The effect of life finding meaning and quality of life on symptom management for SELF-efficiency in breast cancer patients taking radiotherapy

Breast cancer is the most common type of cancer in women, and radiotherapy is one of the main treatment methods. The most common side effects associated with radiotherapy are skin reactions, fatigue, nausea-vomiting, dysphagia, loss of appetite and dyspnea. The research was carried out in the screening model, descriptive design, cross-sectional and relation-seeking research type in order to find meaning in life and to examine the effect of quality of life on symptom management for self-efficacy in breast cancer patients receiving radiotherapy. The population of the study consisted of patients treated in the radiation oncology clinic of a university hospital, and the sample consisted of 50 patients receiving treatment. Personal Information Form including the characteristics of the patients, Meaning in Life Scale, EORTC QLQ-C30 Quality of Life Scale and Symptom Management Scale for Self-Efficacy were used as data collection tools in the study. Evaluation of the data was carried out with descriptive statistical tests, Shapiro-Wilk test, Mann-Whitney U test, Kruskal-Wallis test, Dunn-Bonferroni test, Wilcoxon Signed-Ranks test, Marginal Homogeneity test, Spearman correlation analysis, Bootstraping method, Generalized Linear Modeling analysis. . Statistical significance level was accepted as p<0.05. It was determined that 70% of the patients with a mean age of 51.5±10.79 were married, 40% were primary school graduates, 80% had children, and 60% were unemployed. When the characteristics of the patients regarding the disease and treatment are examined; It was determined that 82% had a diagnosis period of 1 month - 1 year, 42% had stage 3 breast cancer, and 90% had not received radiotherapy before. It was found that the changes observed in the sixth week compared to the second week in the patients' symptoms of fatigue, skin itching, skin dryness, skin pain and skin wound were significant (p<0.05). In the second week of the treatment, it was determined that there was a positive correlation between the SSQ and the sub-dimension of the search for meaning in life sub-dimension scores of the SAS, a negative significant correlation between the total scores of the scale, and a significant positive correlation between the SSQ and the mean scores of the general well-being of life quality (p<0.05). . At the sixth week of treatment, there was a positive correlation between SSQ and quality of life, general well-being, and emotional function sub-dimension scores, while a negative significant correlation was found in fatigue, pain, dyspnea, and constipation sub-dimension scores (p<0.05).