Metacognitive Beliefs, Positive States of Mind, and Emotional Approach Coping as the Predictors of Medical Compliance in Patients with Cancer

Medical compliance plays an essential role in the control of cancer and psychological factors such as metacognitive beliefs, positive psychology, and coping styles which are among the predictors of medical compliance.

The aim of this study was to determine how much metacognitive beliefs, positive states of mind, and emotional approach coping can predict medical compliance in patients with breast cancer.

This was a descriptive correlational study. By available sampling method, 154 women with breast cancer who were medically treated and had inclusion criteria, responded to the Morisky Medication Adherence scale (MMAS), Metacognitive Beliefs questionnaire (MCBQ), Positive states of mind (PSOM) scale, and emotional approach coping (EAC) scale. Stepwise multiple regression analysis by SPSS statistics version 24 was applied for data analysis.

There was a significant correlation between positive states of mind and metacognitive beliefs and between emotional approach coping with medical compliance (P < 0.05). Positive states of mind and metacognitive beliefs were the best predictors of medical compliance (P < 0.001), while the emotional approach coping could not predict medical compliance. Results also showed that positive states of mind (β = 0. 51) have the greatest predictive power to medical compliance, and the variable of emotional approach coping is not effective in predicting.

Research findings suggest that positive states of mind and orientation toward metacognitive beliefs can control anxiety among patients and predict medical compliance in patients with breast cancer but research about emotional approach coping needs to more investigation.