The use of complementary and alternative medicine and approaches to coping with stress in women with breast cancer: a cross-sectional study

Objective

The study aimed to reveal the approaches to coping with stress of women with breast cancer and the factors predicting these approaches, to determine the prevalence and characteristics of Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM), and to examine the relationship between use of CAM and approaches to coping with stress.

Methods

A descriptive and cross-sectional study was conducted among 328 women with breast cancer at a training and research hospital in Türkiye. Data were collected with the “Descriptive Information Form” and the “Stress Coping Styles Scale (SCSS)”.

Results

Women's SCSS score was 47.26±6.39 (effective) and 37.76±6.33 (ineffective). The SCSS score were not significantly different between CAM users and non-CAM users (p>0.05). The prevalence of CAM use was 36%, the most common types of CAM were herbal products (55.1%) and prayer (33.8%) and the reasons for using CAM were for relaxation (symptomatic) (43.2%). As a result of multivariate logistic regression analysis, level of income, working, number of living children, receiving chemotherapy, receiving surgery, having a family history of cancer, and the interest of their partner after the disease were associated with effective coping with stress (p<0.05, adjusted R²=0.08, 0.05, and 0.33 respectively). Working, receiving chemotherapy, receiving surgery, stage of cancer, and having a history of cancer in a social environment were associated with ineffective coping with stress (p<0.05, adjusted R²=0.14 and 0.11 respectively).

Conclusions

One-third of women were using CAM and had a good level of approaches to coping with stress. Healthcare providers, especially gynecology-oncology nurses, should provide counseling on CAMs and develop strategies for coping with stress for women with breast cancer.