Illness perception and coping among women living with breast cancer in Ghana: an exploratory qualitative study

OBJECTIVE: Illness perception has been shown to have significant influence on the well-being and coping strategies of persons living with chronic medical conditions. Understanding of how women living with breast cancer cognitively and emotionally represent their illness and coping strategies used is likely to help in designing focused psychosocial interventions aimed at improving their health and well-being. This study explored the illness perceptions and coping strategies among women receiving care for breast cancer. DESIGN: A qualitative phenomenological study (using semi-structured in-depth interviews). SETTING: Oncology department of a tertiary hospital in Ghana. PARTICIPANTS: Eleven women receiving breast cancer treatment were purposively sampled and in-depth individual interviews were conducted with questions based on illness perception and coping literature. RESULTS: In terms of illness perceptions, it emerged that most of the participants lacked adequate factual knowledge about breast cancer and perceived causes but believed in the curability of their illness through medical treatments and the help of God. Spirituality, social support and diversion coping were the key resources for coping among the participants. CONCLUSION: Breast cancer patients lacked adequate factual knowledge of breast cancer and their perception about the causes of breast cancer is rooted in biopsycho-spiritual model of illness. The reliance on spirituality and social support as the main coping strategies suggests the need for psychosocial interventions tailored to the spiritual and psychosocial needs of the patients.