Apoio social, imagem corporal e autopercepção de saúde em mulheres com câncer de mama

Abstract

Introduction: Breast cancer has a high incidence and mainly affects the female population. Even today, with advances in treatment methods, this disease causes biopsychosocial changes in women's lives, which may have repercussions in the short and long term on social relations, health perception and self-image. Objective: The objective of this study was to analyze the association between social support, body image and self-perceived health of women being treated for breast cancer. Methods: For this, a descriptive and cross-sectional study was carried out with a quantitative approach. A questionnaire containing sociodemographic information and clinical and therapeutic data was used to collect data, the Social Support Scale, a question about self-perception of health, and the Body Image after Breast Cancer questionnaire (BIBCQ) to assess self-image. The questionnaires were applied to 24 women while they were waiting for the routine appointment at the Mastology or Physiotherapy outpatient clinic of the University Hospital of Santa Maria (HUSM) and the Reference Center for Occupational Health (CEREST). Results: The result of the total score obtained by Social Support was 72.17 ± 5.56, indicating that the women received excellent social support. The body stigma domain (40.71 ± 8.49) had a high score, however the body image evaluation was positive. Self-rated health was reported by 83.3% of women as being good to very good. There was no association between social support, body image and self-perception of health, however, there was a moderate correlation between self-perception of health and total BIBCQ score and strong correlation between the rest of the domains. Conclusion: Based on the data obtained, it is possible to infer that social support contributes positively to self-perception of health, as well as to self-image, however, cancer still causes body stigma in the researched group.