Relationship between symptom burden and compliance of functional exercise in patients after breast cancer surgery： the pathway of hope level

Abstract

BackgroundCompliance of functional exercise has considerable impact on the effectiveness of postoperative rehabilitation among patients with breast cancer. Both symptom burden and hope level of patients are in relation with the compliance mentioned above， but there is limited evidence for the relationship among the three in patients after breast cancer surgery.ObjectiveTo explore the pathway of hope level between symptom burden and functional exercise compliance in patients after breast cancer surgery， with intention to provide references for improving their functional exercise compliance.MethodsFrom March 26 to December 9， 2023， 312 patients who received breast cancer surgery in a tertiary grade A hospital in Sichuan Province were selected as the study objects. Investigation was conducted by adopting scales including the Chinese version of the M. D. Anderson Symptom Inventory （MDASI-C）， the Chinese version of the Herth Hope Scale （HHS-C） and the Functional Exercise Compliance Scale among breast cancer patients after discharge. Pearson correlation analysis was used to examine the correlation among each scale score. Model 4 from the macro program Process of SPSS 25.0 was used to analyze the pathway of hope level between symptom burden and functional exercise compliance.ResultsA total of 308 patients （98.72%） after breast cancer surgery completed effective questionnaire survey. As results showed， MDASI-C score was negatively correlated with scores of HHS-C and functional exercise compliance （r=-0.202， -0.279， P<0.01）， and HHS-C score was positively correlated with score of functional exercise compliance （r=0.453， P<0.01）. The hope level acted as pathway between symptom burden and functional exercise compliance in breast cancer patients after surgery， and the effect value was -0.083 （95% CI： -0.139~-0.009）， accounting for 29.74% of the total effect.ConclusionThe symptom burden of breast cancer patients after surgery can affect their compliance of functional exercise directly and can also indirectly affect the compliance through the level of hope. ［Funded by Nanchong Social Science Research "14th Five-Year Plan" 2022 Annual Project （number， NC22B301）］

Keywords

• breast cancer
• symptom burden
• hope level
• functional exercise compliance
• mediating effect