The Relationship between Meaning in Life and Quality of Life among Breast Cancer-Chemotherapy Patients

Introduction& Breast cancer is the most prevalent cancer among women. Its diagnosis will prolong the life of breast cancer patients. It is essential to find effective Interventions factors for quality of life in breast cancer patients'. One of these factors is meaning in life that correlate to psychological well-being. Because of psychological factors, well-being is one of quality of life domains. This study was done to correlate the meaning in life to quality of life in breast cancer patients. This study was a correlation design that was conducted on 65 breast cancer patients hospitalized in the chemotherapy ward of Shiraz Namazi Hospital in summer 2009. Sampling was simple random. For data gathering, a quality of life &meaning in life questionnaire was used by breast cancer patients'. Then data was analyzed by the SPSS version 16 software using X2 and Spearman Correlation Coefficient. Results showed statistical meaningful positive correlation between QOL and meaning in life (p<0.01).In this study, the majority of patients(58.5%)had non-well QOL,46.2% of patients have almost well,64.6% non-well psychological well-being, 69.2 % non-well social well-being and 49,2% non-well functional well-being. Based on study findings, there were not any important difference in mean score of QOL based on variables such as age, economic status, married status, employment and educational status. Results showed correlation between QOL & Meaning in life. It is recommended that interventions should be done for QOL well-being. These interventions are planned group consultations that can cause well meaning in life and well QOL.