Psychosocial Correlates of Women with Breast Cancer during Chemotherapy: A Scoping Review

Abstract

Introduction. Treatments for breast cancer (BC) cause changes in the lives of these women and their psychological state and quality of life (QoL) can be affected at several levels. Objective. To synthesize the current knowledge about how QoL, social support (SS), resilient coping, spirituality, and positive and negative affect (PANA) behave during the experience of BC and chemotherapy (CT). Methodology. For this scoping review, the PRISMA ScR guidelines were followed, it was used B-On, and studies between 2016 and 2021 were discriminated. 120 articles were obtained, and 14 cross-sectional and retrospective studies were included for review, since the others did not assess at least one of the variables of interest, as they wereliterature reviews, included metastatic or advanced cancer, and had as participants the significant others of women with BC. Results. BC and CT have a significant positive impact on SS, spirituality and resilience and a significant negative impact on QoL and PANA. Spirituality and SS showed to be important coping strategies usedby women with BC. There seems to be a positive correlation between most variables, except for negative affect. Discussion/Conclusions. These psychosocial variablesthat seem to be affected by cancer and its treatments should be considered by the health team. Psychological interventions that focus on the needs and resourcesof these women should be developed, namely group interventions and Positive Psychology-based interventions.