ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Women with gynecological cancers experience physical and mental distress due to their diagnosis, surgery, adjuvant chemotherapy, and radiotherapy, all of which have adverse physical, mental, social, and spiritual impacts on their quality of life. PURPOSE: This study was designed to examine the correlations among symptom distress, social support, spiritual well-being, and quality of life as well as the predictors of quality of life in women with gynecological cancers. METHODS: This was a cross-sectional correlational study. A total of 91 women with gynecologic cancer were recruited from a medical center in central Taiwan. A demographic characteristics questionnaire, the World Health Organization Quality of Life Brief Questionnaire Taiwanese version, the Chinese Modified Symptom Distress Scale, the Chinese Simplified Social Support Scale, and the Spiritual Well-Being Scale were used for data collection. Correlation and multiple regression analyses were performed on the data. RESULTS: Symptom distress was found to correlate negatively with spiritual well-being as well as with the physical health, psychological health, and environmental health domains of quality of life. Social support and spiritual well-being were found to correlate positively with all four domains of quality of life. Social support was identified as the main predictor of quality of life. CONCLUSIONS / IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE: Symptom distress, social support, and spiritual well-being should be incorporated into nursing education to improve medical staff awareness of these issues and promote the timely evaluation of patient needs. Moreover, medical staff should provide appropriate social and spiritual support and multi-disciplinary care as well as make referrals when necessary to related support groups to improve clinical care quality to enhance patient quality of life.
