Relationships among Distress, Family Support, and Health Promotion Behavior in Breast Cancer Survivors

Purpose: This study was to investigate relationships among distress, family support, and health promotion behavior in breast cancer survivors. The research design was a descriptive study. Methods: Data were collected through three structured questionnaires: the 'Distress' by Distress management version 1 (National Comprehensive Cancer Network, NCCN), 'Family support' developed by Cobb, and Health promotion behavior developed by Walker, Sechrist and Pender. The subjects were 213 breast cancer survivors from two general hospitals in B metropolitan city from July. 15 to August 15 2013. The data were analyzed using SPSS 18.0, specifically descriptive statistics, t-test, ANOVA, Scheffe test, and Pearson's correlation coefficients were used. Results: The mean score of distress was 3.91 +/- 2.59. 50.2% of the subjects reported a distress score of 4 or more. Among these, the most common problems were emotions. Moderate family support and health promotion behavior. Distress showed negative correlations with Family support (r = -.34, p<.001), and health promotion behavior (r=-.23, p=.002). Family support showed positive correlations with health promotion behavior (r=.43, p<.001). Conclusion: The health promotion behavior of breast cancer survivors can be improved if family support is improved and distress is decreased. Therefore, a nursing intervention program that leads to improving family support and decreasing the distress of breast cancer survivors is needed to improve health promotion behavior.