The determination of loneliness levels of woman with gynecological cancer

Headnote

Keywords: Gynecological cancer, Endometrium cancer, loneliness, gynecological diseases

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Objective: This study is conducted to determine the issues and loneliness levels of women with gynecological cancer.

Material and Methods: The scope of this descriptive study is woman with gynecological cancer in the department of obstetrics and gynecology of a university hospital. The study was carried between April 2015 and June 2015, and 703 patients participated in the study, 294 of these patients were excluded because of reference again. Twenty percent of 409 patients were selected with simple random method (81 patients). Eleven of these 81 patients did not answer all questions in the questionnaire. Finally, 70 patients participated in the study. The data of the study was obtained through face to face interview technique. The informed concent was obtained from the ethics committee of Cukurova University. The questionnaire consists of two parts: sociodemographic characteristics that have 39 questions, and UCLA loneliness scale that measures loneliness levels. SPSS 15 software was used for data analysis. T-test and ANOVA test were used for statistical analysis.

Results: The main age of the women was 54.8±9.8 years old. The average score of UCLA-LS scale is 34.6±10.4. The degrees of loneliness of patiens are: 60% of patients in low level, 30% of patients in moderate level, and 10% of patients in high level. There is statistical significance between marital status, educational status of husband, financial status that meet the costs of illness conditions and degree of loneliness (p=0.039, p=0.011, p=0.049, p=0.002 respectively). There is not statistical significance between educational status, disease symptoms, disease stage, type of treatment and degree of loneliness (p=0.139, p=0.810, p=0.083, p=0.814 respectively). There is not statistical significance between diagnosis, relationship with husband, sex life, reproductive action and degree of loneliness (p=0.450, p=0.260, p=0.071 respectively). There is statistical significance between diagnosis and motherhood/duty of her husband (p=0.020).

Conclusion: The loneliness level of women are associated with many factors. The using of psycological support, consulting services, and supporting factors will reduce the level of loneliness.