Associations of Illness Symptoms, Perception of Illness, and Coping with Quality of Life of Thyroid Cancer Patients after Thyroidectomy

ABSTRACT

Purpose@#To determine associations of illness symptoms, perception of illness, coping with quality of life (QOL) of thyroid cancer patients and identify factors affecting their QOL. @*Methods@#A cross-sectional study was performed using a self-administered questionnaire for 111 thyroid cancer patients after thyroidectomy. They were recruited from the outpatient clinic of one university hospital.Data collection was conducted from August 2018 to November 2018. @*Results@#The QOL was significantly associated with interpersonal coping (β= 0.31, p< .001), monthly household income (β= 0.30, p< .001), illness symptoms (β= -0.22, p= .017), perception of illness (β= -0.20, p= .031), and education (β= 0.18, p= .037) in stepwise multiple regression. These factors explained 33.1% of QOL of thyroid cancer patients. @*Conclusion@#Interpersonal coping is a major contributing factor to QOL. Therefore, thyroid cancer patients need good interpersonal coping for better quality of life.