Relationship of knowledge of psychosocial issues about cancer with psychic distress and adjustment among breast cancer clinic attendees in a Nigerian teaching hospital.

Objectives: The diagnosis of breast cancer prompts emotional reactions, which predispose to psychosocial problems and poor adjustment. Assessment of the psychosocial issues could help articulation of specific interventions. There is paucity of data on psychosocial issues in breast cancer from Nigeria. We assessed knowledge of psychosocial issues about breast cancer and its association with psychic distress and adjustment among women attending a Nigerian teaching hospital.

Methods: We used a descriptive survey design to assess 63 consecutive clinic attendees (mean age: 49.9, SD: 10.5) who met the eligibility criteria. Data were obtained using the following: a 15-item self-report validated psychosocial needs questionnaire, General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) and 10-item adjustment scale.

Results: Majority (63.4%) indicated they did not know much about the nature of breast cancer. The greatest area of worry was related to fear of death (81.0%). Knowledge about management of breast cancer was significantly inversely correlated with psychic distress (p<0.03). High psychic distress was significantly related to psychosocial concerns (p<0.01), and inversely correlated with adjustment (p<0.001).The most important predictor of psychic distress and adjustment was their fear about how people reacted to them.

Conclusions: The findings support previous reports indicating that psychosocial concerns are associated with psychic distress and poor adjustment in breast cancer. Accordingly, a regular psycho-oncology service should include counseling on improved prognosis in cancer with early patronage of modern treatments, to allay fear of death; while public health education on social stigma should address fear of negative reactions from people.