Factors influencing the coping behavior of terminally-ill women with cancer of the reproductive organ

• Main Author: Palma, Ella Cecilia P.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 1997
• Subjects: Coping behavior; Cancer > Patients; Women; Terminally ill; Generative organs; Female > Cancer; Social and Behavioral Sciences
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_masteral/1835
• Institution: De La Salle University

This exploratory descriptive study involves probing into the factors that influences the coping behavior of terminally-ill women with cancer of the reproductive organ. All the informants were referred to the researcher by the Philippine Cancer Society, Inc. This study has three sets of respondents: the case informants, the significant others, and the professional caregivers. Data were obtained through in-depth interview with the use of an interview guide which consisted of two parts namely socio-demographic profile and interview proper. Presented were the informant's discovery of the illness and immediate reaction, knowledge of cancer, coping behavior, and kinds of support received. The findings revealed four modes of coping namely religious, personal, medical/curative and social-financial support. The facilitating factors that influenced the coping behavior of the informants are positive personality traits, faith in God/religiosity, social-financial support and pain and symptom management while the hindering factors are loss of friends and poverty. The researcher concluded that cancer patients deal with their crisis depending on their personal coping abilities and availability of the overall support network. Furthermore, pain and symptom management proved to be very important because other psychosocial intervention will not be helpful unless the patient is comfortable.