Body image distress among cancer patients: needs for psychosocial intervention development

OBJECTIVES: This study examines the body image distress among patients with head and neck cancer (HNC) visiting a tertiary care hospital for follow-ups. DESIGN: A cross-sectional survey purposively enrolled 170 head and neck cancer (HNC) patients who had undergone cancer surgery at a newly established tertiary care hospital, North India. METHODS: A structured pre-tested socio-demographic and clinical profile checklist and the Derriford Appearance Scale-24 (DAS-24) were used to collect information. An appropriate descriptive and inferential statistic was applied to compute the findings. RESULTS: The median age of the participants was 46.0 years, and 80% of the participants were unemployed. The mean body image distress score was 57.95 (SD = 10.3, 47–66.75, range 42–77). The body image distress shows a significant association with age (p < .001), gender (p = 0.003), and working status (p = 0.032) of the HNC patients. Multilinear regression reported gender as an independent predictor (95% CI: 0.615–8.646, p = 0.025) for body image distress in HNC patients. CONCLUSIONS: HNC patients reported substantial body image distress due to changes in body appearance. Female patients who had undergone surgery at young age reported higher body image distress. Recommending cosmetic surgery and nurse-led psychosocial nursing intervention on routine follow-ups are other potential strategies to improve facial appearance to overcome the negative impact of body image.