The role of brain/behavioural systems in prediction of quality of life and coping strategies in cancer patients

Background: It seems that individual differences in personality characteristics are implicated in the incidence and progress of physical diseases and socio-psychological consequences. However, there are a few studies about the role of personality in the prediction of socio-psychological consequences of cancer. The aim of this research was to survey the role of personality in the prediction of socio-psychosocial factors: quality of life and coping strategies.

Methods: This research was a descriptive-correlational study in which the sample included fifty cancer patients who were selected through convenience sampling method. To assess the personality differences, quality of life and coping strategies, the Carver and White (1994) BIS/BAS Scales, SF-12 Health Survey and Coping Inventory for Stressful Situation (CISS) were used, respectively.  The data were analysed by SPSS software using Pearson correlation coefficient and stepwise regression.

Results: The  findings showed that Both BIS and BAS systems could predict the quality of life (P<0.001), BIS system could explain the emotion-oriented coping strategy (P<0.05) and avoidance-oriented coping stratesy (P<0.01) and BAS system could explain the problem-oriented coping strategy (P<0.001).

Conclusion: The findings of this study showed that brain/behavioural systems can predict the quality of life and coping strategies in cancer patients.  The identification of these systems in cancer patients can help recognize the persons that are under the risk of  poor quality of life or have a higher chance of using inconsistent coping strategies, and execute preventive measures about them.