Marital Adjustment and Loneliness Status of Women with Mastectomy and Husbands' Reactions

Abstract

Aim: The present descriptive analysis of breast-cancer women with mastectomy surgery was conducted to assess husband partner compatibility and level of loneliness during the post-surgery period. Materials and methods: The study was carried out in Ondokuz Mays University, Medical Faculty surgical clinic. A sample of 48 women with mastectomy and 44 husbands were included in the study. A questionnaire form, the dyadic adjustment scale, and UCLA loneliness scale were used to process the data. Descriptive statistics, correlations, Mannhitney U and Kruskalallis tests were used for data analysis with the SPSS 13.0 statistical package for Windows. Results: It was determined that the education background of husbands influenced marital adjustment, this being better with a high school or further diploma. Husbands who described their marriage as bad after the surgery had higher marital adjustment scores (p<0.01). A connection was found between loneliness status of participant women and their marital adjustment (r=0.373; p=0.009). Similar findings were obtained for their husbands (r=0.412; p=0.005). Conclusion: At the end of this research, women with mastectomy and their husbands described their marital relations before the surgery as good but as bad after the surgery. Women with mastectomy and their husbands stated that they did not feel lonely before or after the surgery. It is critical that nursing initiatives be arranged in line with health training on marital adjustment and loneliness and psychosocial approaches and communications are adjusted to meet the needs of women and husbands.