Association of Coping Strategies with Death Anxiety through the Mediating Role of Disease Perception in Patients with Breast Cancer:A Cross-Sectional Study

Background: Understanding disease symptoms is among the importantpsychological and behavioral variables in cancer treatment. The present studyaimed to investigate the relationship between coping strategies and death anxietythrough the mediation of disease perception in patients with breast cancer inAbadan in ۲۰۲۰.Methods: The study was a descriptive correlation performed by path analysis.The statistical population included all patients with breast cancer in Abadan in۲۰۲۰ who referred to medical centers for six months. A total of ۲۰۰ of them wereselected as the sample of the study using convenience sampling. Researchinstruments included the Death Anxiety Scale (DAS), the Ways of CopingQuestionnaire (WCQ), and the Brief Illness Perception Questionnaire (Brief IPQ).The proposed model was evaluated using path analysis with AMOS software.Results: The results showed that there was a significant association betweenemotion-focused strategy and disease perception (β= ۰.۶۷, P= ۰.۰۰۲), problemfocusedstrategy and disease perception (β= -۰.۰۸, P= ۰.۰۰۱), disease perceptionand death anxiety (β= ۰.۳۹, P= ۰.۰۰۱), and between emotion-focused strategy anddeath anxiety (β= -۰.۲۶, P= ۰.۰۰۱). There was no significant association betweenproblem-focused strategy and death anxiety. The results of path analysis indicatedthat disease perception played a mediating role in the association between theemotion- and problem-focused strategies with death anxiety (P= ۰.۰۱).Conclusion: According to the results of the study, the relationship betweencoping strategies and death anxiety through the mediation of disease perceptionhad a good fit and can be an important step in identifying the factors affecting thedeath anxiety of patients with breast cancer.