Relationship of Humor Sense with Quality of Life in Cancer Patients

In the medical world, sense of humor as a means for coping with problems and as a treatment source, has attracted serious attention. Physical disease such as cancer can have negative effects on the quality of life that is desirable functions in physiological and psychological dimensions. The main purpose of this study was to investigate the role of dimensions of humor sense on dimensions of quality of life in cancer patients. This research was a descriptive and correlation study. The sample was consisted of 50 cancer patients that were selected by available sampling method in Zahedan. The tools were the Quality of Life Questionnaire (SF-36) and the Sense of Humor Questionnaire (SHQ).The data were analyzed by Pearson’s correlation coefficient and regression. The results showed that sense of humor in stressful conditions has significant correlations with physiological quality of life (r= 0.278, p≤0.025) and psychological quality of life (r= 0.283, P≤0.023), The results of regression analyze also showed that sense of humor in social relations accompany with verbal humor predicted 24% of physiological healthy variance and 40% of psychological healthy. In refer to role of Sense of humor in quality of life in cancer patients, it is suggested that necessary interventions be applied by using humor for promoting quality of life in cancer patients.