Contracting cancer is a traumatic event, involving the psychological sphere, individual values, interpersonal relationships. Sexuality is a substantial component of quality of life for those surviving cancer. The loss of desire, the modification of physical reactions, a difficult communication are common problems. In recent years, the impact of cancer on sexuality has received adequate attention in the literature, but partners’ stress is poorly documented. Partners need care and attention as the patient, but these needs are often underestimated. The aim of this study is to evaluate the factors determining the distress experienced by the couples, together with the potentially traumatic experience of cancer. Each patient compiled a questionnaire for collecting socio-demographic characteristics and clinical facts about cancer, and a questionnaire about the sexuality. Similar questionnaires were administered to partners. Here in the following, the preliminary results on 64 couples are presented. We used Multiple Correspondence Analysis and Cluster Analysis for analysing questionnaires’ data and classifying each patient and partner. The two classification systems were cross-tabulated for highlighting the perceptions about the relationship of the patient and his partner. The 67.24% of couples declared not to experience problems and have a good quality of sexuality, where the 17.24% of couples showed an unsatisfactory relation and a state of demoralisation. More interesting, the 15.52% of couples have different perceptions, with only the patient in discomfort (8.62%) or only the partner in an unsatisfactory condition (6.90%). This mismatch seems to be more frequent in elder couples. An in-depht discussion will be presented elsewhere
Promoting the quality of relationships and sexuality in patients with gynecological cancer. An observational study supported by IRIS Roma
Michelangelo Misuraca;
2018-01-01
Abstract
Contracting cancer is a traumatic event, involving the psychological sphere, individual values, interpersonal relationships. Sexuality is a substantial component of quality of life for those surviving cancer. The loss of desire, the modification of physical reactions, a difficult communication are common problems. In recent years, the impact of cancer on sexuality has received adequate attention in the literature, but partners’ stress is poorly documented. Partners need care and attention as the patient, but these needs are often underestimated. The aim of this study is to evaluate the factors determining the distress experienced by the couples, together with the potentially traumatic experience of cancer. Each patient compiled a questionnaire for collecting socio-demographic characteristics and clinical facts about cancer, and a questionnaire about the sexuality. Similar questionnaires were administered to partners. Here in the following, the preliminary results on 64 couples are presented. We used Multiple Correspondence Analysis and Cluster Analysis for analysing questionnaires’ data and classifying each patient and partner. The two classification systems were cross-tabulated for highlighting the perceptions about the relationship of the patient and his partner. The 67.24% of couples declared not to experience problems and have a good quality of sexuality, where the 17.24% of couples showed an unsatisfactory relation and a state of demoralisation. More interesting, the 15.52% of couples have different perceptions, with only the patient in discomfort (8.62%) or only the partner in an unsatisfactory condition (6.90%). This mismatch seems to be more frequent in elder couples. An in-depht discussion will be presented elsewhereI documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
