Life after diagnosis social support among women with breast cancer

• Main Author: Gomez, Maria Virginia B.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 1999
• Subjects: Breast > Cancer; Breast > Diseases > Diagnosis; Support (Domestic relations); Women; Cancer > Patients; Life change events; Health Services Administration; Women's Health
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_masteral/1982
• Institution: De La Salle University

This exploratory study examines what social support women diagnosed with breast cancer need and what they actually receive from the perspectives of the women themselves (n=30), their family caregivers (n=20) and medical healthcare providers (n=5).The results of the study generated similar taxonomies of social support from viewpoints of the women and their family caregivers. The types of social support needed by women diagnosed with breast cancer are emotional, spiritual, financial, physical, informational and political support. The interviews with medical healthcare providers came up with four (4) categories of support: emotional, financial, physical and informational. Data further revealed that the women generally receive what social support the respondents perceive women with breast cancer should have. The main source of support is the family. However, families are not expected to provide informational and political support. The former is primarily sought from the doctor, while the latter, from high-ranking officials. Among married breast cancer patients, the husband is considered the most supportive. For the single and widowed women, the siblings and the children were chosen, respectively. Other people who compose the social network providing support to the diagnosed women are her relatives, employer and co-workers, neighbors, and religious group. The findings also indicate that the women and their caregivers find the financial needs of a breast cancer patient difficult to sustain owing to the long duration of treatment at a high cost. Moreover, there seem to be a problem regarding the extent of satisfaction of the informational support women expect from the government and her attending physicians. These findings imply that outside of the family, support for women diagnosed with breast cancer is wanting.