Comparison of Perfectionism, Optimism, and Spiritual Well-Being between Women with Thyroid Cancer and Healthy Women

Currently, cancer is one of the most common chronic diseases worldwide. Spiritual health and optimistic feeling increase adjustment of cancer patients to this disease. Researchers consider perfectionism to be involved in the development of many types of physical-psychological damages. The aim of this study was to compare perfectionism, optimism, and spiritual spiritual well-being between women with thyroid cancer and healthy women.
This descriptive-correlational study was conducted on 96 women (48 women with thyroid cancer and 48 patient companions) in the Nuclear Medicine Ward of the Shariati Hospital, Tehran, 2016-2017. Data collection tool was Scheier's Life Orientation Test, Frost Perfectionism Scale, and Ellison’s Spiritual Well-Being questionnaires. Data analysis was performed using multivariate analysis of variance and independent t-test.
Among the parameters of perfectionism, “parental expectation”, “personal standards”, and “organization”, had higher scores in women with thyroid cancer compared to the healthy women. The mean score for “optimistic and pessimistic attitudes" toward life was approximately equal in the two groups. The mean scores for “existential well-being” and “religious well-being” were slightly higher in healthy women than in women with thyroid cancer.
According to the results of this study, perfectionism can be associated with development of thyroid cancer. It is therefore important for treatment teams to take into account to provide psychotherapeutic services and to improve the treatment process.