ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Increased early diagnosis and improved treatment options have decreased the mortality rate of breast cancer and increased the survival rate. Healthy lifestyle behaviors are very important in breast cancer survivors as they reduce mortality and morbidity rates, cancer recurrence frequency, and side effects of treatment and improve health. This study was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of a health promotion training intervention in breast cancer survival. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study is a quasi-experimental, pre-test-post-test and single-group study. It was conducted with 43 women breast cancer survivors. The "Healthy Lifestyle Behaviors Scale II" was used to collect the data. Four sessions of training were given to the women once a week, and a 3-month post-training follow-up was performed. The t-test, Wilcoxon analysis, and Spearmen correlation analysis were used to evaluate the data. RESULTS: Pre-training and post-training scores in the sub-dimensions and total scores of the healthy lifestyle behavior scale showed that the training was highly effective. There was a significant increase in all sub-dimensions and total scale post-training scores (P < 0.05). In the correlation analysis, a negative correlation was found between age and physical activity, between elapsed time after diagnosis and nutrition, and between elapsed time after diagnosis and spiritual development (P < 0,05). However, there was a positive correlation between educational status and nutrition (P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: The results show that a health promotion training program covering physical activity/exercise, healthy nutrition, effective communication, coping with stress, and increasing health responsibility had positive effects on healthy lifestyle behaviors in this population, and age, educational status, and elapsed time after diagnosis influence healthy lifestyle behaviors in survival.
ABSTRACT
Background: The COVID-19 pandemic is a global public health problem affecting mental health, and basic data are required for evidence-based mental health interventions. This study aimed to identify the prevalence of psychological impacts, anxiety, depression, stress, and any associated risk factors in individuals living in Turkey during the COVID-19 pandemic. Materials and methods: The population of this descriptive study consisted of individuals over the age of 18 living in Turkey. The data were collected between July-September 2020 using the snowball sampling method. The study was completed with 1733 participants. The data were collected using the Impact of Events Scale-Revised and the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale. Statistical analyses included percentage, mean, standard deviation, a Chi-square test, a Mann Whitney U test, Kruskal Wallis and Tamhane's T2 post hoc, and Spearman's correlation. P < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: 45.1% had moderate or severe psychological effects; 42.7% had a moderate or severe depression, 31.7% had moderate or severe anxiety, and 28.5% had moderate or severe stress levels. Being a woman, being single, unemployment, smoking, the presence of chronic diseases, being young (<35), being a university graduate, having a household size of 5 or more, a low income, having poor health, and being underweight were significantly correlated with some psychological impact, depression, anxiety, and stress levels of people. Conclusion: During the pandemic period, almost half of the respondents were found to experience some psychological impact of the pandemic and have negative moderate to severe mental health levels. Risk groups for mental health were identified.
ABSTRACT
Following breast cancer treatment, many families are negatively affected following the treatment for breast cancer of their women members. This study focused on assessing the effects of the training program and counseling program given to women who underwent a mastectomy and their spouses. Sixty women and 60 spouses were recruited for this study. The women in the experimental group and their spouses were provided with a four-session training program, once a week. Following this training, a 3-month follow-up and counseling were given and an assessment made. There was significant difference between average post-test scores of spouses in the experimental and control groups, in terms of problem solving (p = .003), communication (p = .033), and roles (p = .000) dimensions of family assessment device (FAD). Noting that women in the experimental and control groups demonstrated significant differences among average post-test scores in terms of role emotional (p = .045) and mental health (p = .017) dimensions of Quality of Life Scale (SF-36), a significant difference existed among average post-test scores of spouses in the experimental and control groups in terms of general health (p = .017), role physical (p = .011), role emotional (p = .003), and mental health (p = .005) dimensions of Quality of Life Scale. These results indicated that training and counseling program provided to this population produced positive effects upon family functioning and quality of life.
