Comparing the quality of life and Strategies for Coping with Stress in cancer and non-cancer patients in Yazd

Cancer is a crippling and incurable disease, which affects on physical health as well as mental and social well- being and disrupts patient’s life. The present study was done to measure the rate of quality of life and coping strategies in people with cancer and non-cancer in Yazd city.
This was an analytical and cross sectional study in which performed on 53 women with cancer who referred to private oncology clinic and 94 non-cancer ones in Yazd. The sampling method was purposeful. Data were collected by demographic questionnaire, coping inventory for stressful situation questionnaire (CISS) and a socio-economic well-being scale in people with cancer. SPSS-16 was used to analyze data.
Problem-focused coping style was the most common coping strategy among the participants (Mean± SD 50.34± 7.89) and the rate of quality of life among the participants were 47.47± 7.72. The results of Pearson correlation showed a positive significant relationship between problem-focused and avoidant coping styles with quality of life and its subscales (p0.05).
Generally, the results showed that appropriate use of stress-coping strategies is effective in people’s quality of life. Hence, the use of psychological interventions and stress management training with problems are recommended to enhance psychological state and quality of life among patients with cancer.