The quality and meaning of life of cancer patients in remission: socio-psychological aspects

Abstract

The sense of the meaning of life is a subjectively felt, positive mental state. Suffering in chronic illness intensifies in a human being the sense of isolation and gives rise to emotions with that an individual often cannot cope. Such experiences are characteristic of the process of cancer remission. The sense of coherence strengthens the sense of coping with disease, which increases prospects of recovery. The article presents the results of the authors' research (103 respondents) on the quality and meaning of life of cancer patients in remission: socio-psychological aspects, indicators of the categories of «meaning of life», «responsibility», «consistency», and the latter is dominant at the stage of cancer remission in the studied cohorts. The survey was conducted on the basis of the methodology developed by the authors using the «Goal in Life» test (PIL) by J. K. Crumbaugh and J.J. Smith. Maholicka, as well as «The sense of coherence» by A. Antonovsky (SOC-29). The study showed that the group under survey had a fairly high level of indicators of the categories «meaning of life», «responsibility», «consistency», which did not depend on when the respondents were diagnosed with cancer, as well as the fact that the studied indicators reached higher values in women than in men. Interpersonal factors «meaning of life» and «responsibility» were identified as dominant in the study of the quality and meaning of life in relation to other socio-psychological factors.