Spouse support predicts social functioning in Malaysian women diagnosed with breast cancer: Implication to social neuroscience perspective

3^rd World Congress on Cancer Science & Therapy

October 21-23, 2013 DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel San Francisco Airport, CA, USA

Nasir Yusoff, Wah Yun Low and Cheng Har Yip

Accepted Abstracts: J Cancer Sci Ther

Abstract :

Social process could be one of the powerful psychological predictors of people health condition. This study aims to examine (1) spouse support as predictor of women quality of life following surgery for breast cancer and (2) differences of husband support and quality of life scores between various ethnic groups (i.e. Malay, Chinese, Indian). Seventy four newly diagnosed breast cancer patients who had not begun any post-surgery therapy were responded to the self-rated questionnaires - the Inventory of Socially Supportive Behaviour (ISSB), the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Questionnaire Core Module (EORTC QLQ-C30) and the Breast Module (EORTC QLQ-BR23). Results showed that social functioning significantly associated with spouse support (p<0.01). Spouse support and several quality of life domains (i.e. physical functioning, emotional functioning, pain, appetite loss, sexual functioning and arm symptoms) indicated significant differences between ethnic groups. Spouse support explained 5% of the variance of the social functioning in these women with breast cancer. This study reflects social process such as spouse support as an important determinant in both the development and exacerbation of one?s health outcome. This possibility of health-relevant pathways may contribute to the future model in social neuroscience research perspective related to cancer study.

Biography :

Mohd Nasir Che Mohd Yusoff obtained his Ph.D at the age of 34 years from University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and just completed post-doctoral studies from University of Chicago, USA. Currently, he is the lecturer at the Neuroscience Department, School of Medical Science, Health Campus, Universiti Sains Malaysia. He has presented many paper works in local and international conferences and some of his papers hav e been published in reputed journals.