Qualidade de vida de mulheres mastectomizadas: estudo comparativo no campo da enfermagem oncológica realizado com populações atendidas em grupos de auto ajuda e no ambulatório de hormonioterapia de um hospital oncológico

Abstract

The healing treatment of breast câncer is the mastectomy, which guarantees life but interferes with the women's quality of life. This research aimed at verifying if the participation in self- help groups influences the quality of life of mastectomized women. Two groups of mastectomized women were constituted: a study group composed of 16 women from a self- help group and 32 women attended at the clinic of a câncer hospital that composed the control group. Medicai Outcomes Study Questionnaire 36-item Short form Health Survey (SF-36) was used as an instrument for the measurement of the quality of life levei. The sample of 48 women were in the average age of 58,2 ± 10,6 and had time of mastectomy of 55,4 ± 28,7 months. The study and control groups differed as to the existence of co-morbidity, present in 68,8% of the study group and in 31,2% of the control group (p=0,029). The points generated by SF-36 in eight dimensions of the quality of life related to health were in the study and control groups, respectively: 55,3 ± 22,0 vs. 60,0 ± 28,4 for Physical Function (p=0,463), 32,8 ± 42,5 vs. 33,6 ± 41,0 for Role-Physical (p=0,821), 54,2 ± 22,7 vs. 56,3 ± 25,6 for the Bodily Pain (p=0,869), 65,1 ± 23,0 vs. 74,3 ± 20,3 for General Health (p=0,138), 62,2 ±21,6 vs. 62,7 ± 23,6 for Vitality (p=0,709), 78,1 ± 21,7 vs. 74,4 ± 26,1 for Social Functioning (p=0,786), 58,3 ± 41,3 vs. 61,5 ± 44,9 for Role-Emotional (p=0,655) and 63,3 ±31,5 vs. 64,5 ± 22,2 for Mental Health (p=0,669). We concluded that: 1-the most committed dimensions of the quality of life refer to the physical aspect; 2-the dimensions regarding the mental aspect had better punctuation maybe for the possible psychological adaptation that happened due to the long time of mastectomy of the sample; 3-there wasn’t any difference in the levei of quality of life between the two groups, however this equality can mean positive effect of the participation in a self-help group about the quality of life, since the women of the group study presented more - co-morbidity that could influence negatively, and with sum characteristic to the condition of the mastectomized woman, the quality of life.