PURPOSE/OBJECTIVES: To describe difficulties experienced by @entity1 after treatment for primary @entity0 . DESIGN: Descriptive and exploratory. SETTING: Queensland, Australia. SAMPLE: 245 @entity1 (70% response rate) less than 16 weeks postsurgery for @entity0 completed a survey. The mean age for this sample was 55 years; 71% had undergone mastectomy, and 29% had undergone conservative breast surgery. METHODS: Focus groups were used to generate items for the survey, "Experience of @entity0 " (EBCQ). The EBCQ and the psychological subscale of the Rotterdam Symptom Checklist (RSCL) were administered by mail to the sample. MAIN RESEARCH VARIABLES: Psychological distress, fear of recurrence, decisional uncertainty, informational support, self-image and social relationships, @entity458 , and physical effects of treatments. FINDINGS: Factor analysis of the EBCQ identified five factors, accounting for 60% of the variance. These included psychological effects, treatment concerns, physical effects, self-image, and chemotherapy effects. Four of the five subscales had reliability coefficients of greater than 0.80. Psychological effects included cognitive and emotional effects. Treatment concerns included decisional uncertainty and poorly perceived informational support. Physical effects reflected the symptom pattern of axillary dissection. Self-image included @entity0 . CONCLUSIONS: Nurses who assist @entity1 in adjusting to @entity0 should consider the effect of fear of recurrence and perceptions of body image on the recovery process. Because participation in treatment decisions may increase the demands on @entity1 at diagnosis, informational support appropriate to each @entity1 's needs is essential. How self-esteem can affect self-image and social relationships after @entity0 requires further investigation. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING PRACTICE: Understanding the experience of illness from the perspective of the @entity1 assists nurses in validating their nursing practice and provides clinically relevant information to guide intervention. In particular, supportive psychological care should target both emotional and cognitive responses to @entity0 . Informational support is integral to a @entity1 's satisfaction with treatment decisions and is likely to predict adjustment. When assisting @entity1 to adjust to self-image changes, nurses may need to target @entity1 's perceptions about their body image.

Domains of distress: the experience of XXXX in Australia.

@entity1 :: ('9606', 'Species') :: ['women', 'woman', 'patient'] @entity0 :: ('MESH:D001943', 'Disease') :: ['breast cancer', 'Breast Cancer Questionnaire', 'breast loss and social isolation'] @entity458 :: ('MESH:D020018', 'Disease') :: ['sexual morbidity']
@entity0 :: (MESH:D001943,Disease) :: ['breast cancer']
