INDIAN JOURNAL OF HEALTH STUDIES - Volume 1 Issue 1, July 2019

Pages: 65-82
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Illness Beliefs and Coping Strategies of Women Cancer Patients

Author: Purnima Awasthi, R. C. Mishra

Category: Health Studies

Abstract:

This study relates to examining the illness beliefs of women cancer patients and the strategies they apply in coping with the illness. The sample consisted of 100 women cancer patients diagnosed with cervix cancer. They were administered the tools measuring illness beliefs and coping strategies. The results drawn suggest that patients adopting “avoidance coping” strategies had their causal beliefs that illnesses source from individual, psychological, social, environmental and supernatural aspects. This was comparable to those who adopted “approach coping” strategies. However, the groups differed significantly only for supernatural causes of illness. Patients adopting avoidance strategies were found to believe in supernatural causes compared to those who showed approach coping. The strategies of approach coping were found to be associated with less severe consequences in psychological, interpersonal and physiological domains apart from the pain experienced due to the illness along with hope for positive outcomes of illness management.

Keywords: cervix cancer, coping strategies, illness control beliefs, internal and external causal attributions

DOI: 10.56490/IJHS.2019.1104

DOI URL: https://doi.org/10.56490/IJHS.2019.1104