ANALYSIS OF CANCER PATIENTS’ ILLNESS ACCEPTANCE AND HOPE LEVELS AS PER GENDER AND CANCER DIAGNOSIS

Abstract

The identification and evaluation of the factors associated with cancer are essential to the process of coping with cancer and adapting to it. This research was conducted to find the cancer patients’ levels of illness acceptance and hope and analyze their illness acceptance and hope levels as per gender and cancer diagnosis. A total of 135 patients were included in the research that was designed as a descriptive and correlational study. The data were collected by using the patient identification form, the Acceptance of Illness Scale (AIS), and the Herth Hope Index (HHI). Percentage, mean, Pearson correlation analysis, student t-test, and Kruskal-Wallis test were used in the evaluation of the data. It was found that the participant patients obtained medium-level mean scores from the AIS and the HHI. Besides, it was identified that there was a low-level statistically significant positive relationship between the mean scores obtained by participant patients from these two measurement tools. Upon the comparison of participant patients’ mean AIS and HHI scores as per gender, it was discerned that there was no statistically significant difference in the mean AIS and HHI scores as per gender. It was found that the participants diagnosed with respiratory cancer had higher levels of illness acceptance. While there was no statistically significant difference in the participant patients’ mean HHI scores as per the cancer diagnosis; it was discerned that the participants diagnosed with gynecologic cancer obtained a higher mean score from the interconnectedness sub-scale of the HHI. It is recommended that therapies targeted to the patients with low-level illness acceptance and hope be organized and the patients’ illness acceptance and hope levels be evaluated at certain intervals.

Keywords

• acceptance
• cancer
• diagnosis
• gender
• hope
• patients