Advances in Life Goal Adjustment Ability of Cancer Patients and Its Effect on Physical and Mental Health

Abstract

Cancer is a major traumatic event that causes serious interference in the pursuit of individual's life goals and leads to a variety of emotional disorders. Rational adjustment of life goals is beneficial to rebuild life direction, improve physical and mental health of patients. This paper reviews the current research of domestic and international studies on cancer affecting patients' pursuit of life goals, and summarizes the advances in the existing literature on the goal-adjustment behaviors of cancer patients and the effects on their physical and mental health by literature review. Literature review shows that the impact of cancer diagnosis on patients' pursuit of life goals is mainly manifested in the impact on self-efficacy, goal pursuit ability and goal prioritization. Reasonable goal-adjustment behaviors can help improve patients' physical and mental health, which includes promoting positive emotions, alleviating negative emotions, reducing physical discomfort, and improving quality of life. Therefore, future psychosocial intervention design for the emotional health of cancer patients can be based on guiding patients to replan and regulate their goals, so as to improve patients' emotional health and disease prognosis.

Keywords

• neoplasms|goal adjustment|psychological health|quality of life|disease prognosis|review