[Quality of life and sexuality of women treated for breast cancer].

PURPOSE

To evaluate the quality of life and sexuality features of women with breast cancer, according to the type of surgery they underwent and their sociodemographic characteristics.

METHODS

Transversal study with 110 women treated for breast cancer, for at least one year in the Centro de Atenção Integral à Saúde da Mulher of UNICAMP. The quality of life was assessed by the WHOQOL-bref questionnaire, and the issues on sexuality, by a specific questionnaire in which Cronbach's Alpha coefficient was used to validate the concordance of responses (alpha=0.72) and the technique of factor analysis, with the criterion of self value and variance maximum rotation, resulting in two components: intrinsic or intimacy ( how the woman sees herself sexually) and extrinsic or attractiveness (how the woman believes the others see her sexually). Sociodemographic variables have been assessed according to the WHO questionnaire, and the sexuality components, through the Kruskal-Wallis followed by the Mann-Whitney's test and Spearman correlation test.

RESULTS

Age, schooling, type of surgery and lapse of time from the surgery did not influence the quality of life concerning physical, environmental, and psychological aspects, as well as the social relationships. Women with a stable marital relationship got higher scores in the psychological area (p=0.04) and in the area of social relationships (p=0.02). Higher socioeconomic level influenced the quality of life concerning physical appearance (p=0.01) and environment (p=0.002). Regarding the sexuality, age had influence in the extrinsic component (p=0.0158). Women with a stable marital relationship had higher scores of quality of life in both components of sexuality. Higher schooling influenced in a positive way the intrinsic factor. Women submitted to quadrantectomy or mastectomy with immediate breast reconstruction showed higher scores relating to attractiveness in comparison to mastectomized women without reconstruction.

CONCLUSIONS

Better socioeconomic level and better schooling, stable marital relationship and surgery with breast conservation are linked to better rates of quality of life, including sexuality.