Comparing Mindfulness and Health Anxiety in Women with Breast Cancer and Healthy Individuals

Today cancer is one of the most important causes of death in the world. This disease, depending on its degree of development, causes abnormalities in the normal functioning of the individual. Generally, diagnosing of cancer comes along with a lot of anxiety and it evinces different reactions in the patients including increase in rumination and decrease in resilience. This study tries to compare mindfulness and health anxiety in women with breast cancer and healthy individuals.

This was a descriptive causal-comparative study. The statistical population included all women with breast cancer who were treated at Valiasr Hospital, Zanjan, Iran, and normal people. The sample of this study included 200 patients with cancer and 200 healthy subjects who were matched and selected by convenience sampling. Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ) and Health Anxiety Inventory-18 (HAI-18) were used for the purpose of collecting the data. Multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was used to analyze the data in SPSS software.

There was a significant difference between mindfulness in both groups of patients with cancer and healthy individuals (P < 0.050). Findings also showed significant differences between health anxiety in both groups (P < 0.050).

It can be concluded that patients with cancer have lower mindfulness and higher health anxiety than healthy individuals due to negative self-beliefs and high level of anxiety caused by physical, psychological, and social issues.