The Relationship of Defensive Styles and Islamic Quality of Life with Death Obsession in Women with Breast Cancer

Breast cancer is one of the most common types of cancer in women with an increasing outbreak. The present study aimed to investigate the relationship between defensive styles and Islamic quality of life (QoL) with death obsession in women with breast cancer.

This research was a correlational study. The statistical population of the study included 220 female patients with breast cancer; referring to Cancer Patients Association of Gorgan in 2019. According to Krejcie and Morgan’s table, 136 women were selected from breast cancer patients by simple random sampling. Islamic QoL questionnaire of Mohammad Namaqi et al., defense styles questionnaire of Andrews et al., and obsession with death questionnaire of Abdel-Khalek were applied. Data were analyzed; using the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, Pearson correlation, and stepwise regression.

The results showed that there was a negative significant relationship betweenthe developed defensive style and the Islamic QoL with death obsession (P=0.001).There was a positive significant relationship between the neurotic and undeveloped defensive style with the death obsession (P=0.001). In addition, the results of the regression showed that the Islamic QoL (-0.257) and developed defensive style (-0.196) had the potential for predicting the obsession of death.

These results emphasize the necessity of the role defensive styles and Islamic QoL on the death obsession. So, therapists and counseling in the treatment of cancer for reducing obsession may benefit from paying attention to Islamic QoL and defensive styles.