Hanan J Halaseh 1
Department of psychology, Isra University, Jordan
HNSJ, 2022, 3(4); https://doi.org/10.53796/hnsj341
Published at 01/04/2022 Accepted at 08/03/2022
Abstract
Current study aimed to exploring the quality of life among female cancer patients in Jordan.in additional to examine the effects of the participants qualification, age, and marital status variables in their level of quality of life. Sample of the study consisting of (30) female cancer patients were randomly selected in King Hussein Cancer Center. For data collection purpose, the quality of life scale (Bushra Mubarak) have been used. Results of the study find out that the level of quality of life among female cancer patients in Jordan was moderate, and there was no statistically significant based on qualification, age, marital status variables.
Key Words: Quality of Life, female Cancer, Cancer Patients, Jordan.
Introduction
The quality of life in the present era is a phenomenon of national orientation, and a goal pursued by all economic, political, social, health and educational systems, due to its association with multiple areas of individual personality, their ability to invest their potential and potential, particularly their close association with self-confidence, level of ambition and self-concept (Layard, 2006). Bongnar (2006) posit that the concept of quality of life is a representation of psychological well-being for human beings and the factors affecting their lives (Heinz-Herbert, 2004). Quality of life mean different things for different individuals, which may mean living in the highest well-being level, while it may mean living safely, integrating, and psychologically adapting to others, all of whom strive to achieve the quality of life as much as possible despite the negative effects that surround them. The quality of life reflects the overall construction, which consists of a set of variables aimed at satisfying the psychological needs of the individual, and an expression of the individual’s self-awareness and assessment of the psychological and material aspects available in his or her life, which are organized according to internal mechanics (Shaqir, 2002).
Mansi and Kazem (2006) believe that a sense of quality of life is relatively important, as it is associated with certain subjective factors such as positive self-concept, life and work satisfaction, social status and happiness felt by the individual, as well as some objective factors such as material possibilities, income, environmental hygiene, health status, level of education, and other factors affecting the individual (Burtaverde, 2012). These factors and objective make it necessary to assess an individual’s quality of life; Nevertheless, there is an overlap between the concept of quality of life and the relevant concepts. Women differ in behaviour, conviction, satisfaction, and the ability to reconcile different goals, concerns and tendencies, positive social relationships and compatibility with the social environment and its demands. But agree on what quality of life means. The quality of life is a term that encompasses different areas of life and consists of women’s or society’s expectations for a good life (Ryff, etal., 2006).
Derived from the values and objectives of the social and cultural context, these expectations are a multidimensional personal concept that determines the level of emotional, physical, and social satisfaction of women to be painless from anxiety and disease and serves as a reference that women or society can measure the level of satisfaction with different areas of life (Naissa, 2012). Synchronizing women’s lives with desired level contributes to the achievement of the so-called quality of life, namely, the general well-being of women and communities that identify negative and positive features of their lives, including physical and psychological health, family, education, work, safety, security, freedom, and religious and environmental beliefs (Barcaccia, 2013). Applied psychological research in field of quality of life has come up with a so-called engagement theory that imposes the environment, economics, politics, and culture as areas for assessing quality of life. The field of culture includes: faith, ideas, creativity, entertainment, inquiry, learning, sex and generations, concept of self, social participation, well-being, health, and body image, as well as concepts of freedom, human rights and happiness that are not measured by level of well-being resulting from increased income, so the standard of living should not be considered a measure of happiness (Layard, 2006).
The concept of self and body image is closely linked to the quality of life and happiness of individuals that reflect a woman’s own concept, self-identity and set of beliefs about oneself, and the concept of self is embodied in the answer to “who I am”, and an important element of personality that affects women’s quality of life, compatibility, and mental health. Positive psychology has shown that poor self-esteem leads to a weakening of women’s self-image, mental health, practical, professional, and family abilities and overall quality of life (Barcaccia, 2013). Many psychological studies and research have also indicated that self-concept is an acquired skill resulting from human life experiences and professional experiences, in addition to his vision and awareness of experiences he has gained through challenges of his life from childhood to youth, and his ability to convey these experiences in different life situations in a positive way, as it is used as a motivation and exciting skills and abilities, and support in his life confrontations, which makes him feel the importance, quality and role in life, improve the quality of his life, and result in positive feelings and energy stimulating to bear fruit. Helping others to improve and develop their standard of life (Ismail, 2004).
Literature review
Previous studies are an inspiration to the researcher because each final finding of research is the beginning of new research, helping the researcher gain deeper knowledge, understanding of the problem to be researched, designing the research within the limits of the human and material possibilities available. The researcher therefore had to go back to the previous studies she would review in this chapter. Al-Dosari’s (2020) aimed at verifying the improved level of quality of life in cancer patients. Sample of the study consisting of (78) cancer patients at King Faisal Hospital and National Guard Hospital in Riyadh. The results presented a statistically significant differences between the pre-test and post-test of experimental group on measure of sense of quality of life in favor of post-test. While there were no statistically significant differences between pre-test and post-test of experimental group on quality of life. Ba’li and Jaguli’s (2018) identified the quality of life of students at The University of Mesila in Algeria. Sample of the study was (144) female students from department of psychology, to collecting information and data of the study the researchers adopted the university quality of life students prepared by Hoida Mahmoud and Fawzia Jamali. Results of the study showed that the female students’ quality of life is very high. There are no significant differences in students’ quality of life based on academic level, age and style of residence variables. Another study has been conducted by Al-Shawi and Salami’s (2017) to reveal the quality of life and its relationship to psychological happiness among female students in Faculty of Physical Education and Sports Sciences for Girls – Baghdad University. Sample of the study included (100) female students, the tools of the study were the psychological happiness scale for Mohammed Abu Hashim, and quality of life scale for Kazem Mansi. Results of the study found out that the participants enjoyed a high level of quality of life and psychological happiness.
Significant of the study
The concept of quality of life is one of the most common concepts, a comparative and reference criterion between what women have achieved, what women hope to achieve, and what others are achieving. Many researchers and scientists in mental health have tried to find factors that play an important role in quality of life as a standard and indicator of mental health. Polanski (2000) emphasized the importance of quality of life as the wide and wide range of women experiences as well as their psychological and physical health, work, and surrounding personal and social relationships and cultural circumstances, all of which interact together to influence the quality of their lives and their concept of them. Cancer disease among women an important health and psychological issue, which plays an important role in the quality of life, and what contributes to the seriousness of the disease is its targeting of the body image that affects women’s self-satisfaction, personality growth and development. A woman’s negative cognitive component towards her body image, which is the result of body image deformity, is one of the barriers between her interaction with others and society. The concept of quality of life has received many attentions from researchers according to its competence, and given the psychological, social, physical, and other fears of cancer. There have been few recent studies on concept of quality of life in the category of women with cancer diseases in Jordan, which revealed the quality of life among sample of female cancer patients in Jordan.
Aims of the study
Taking into consideration the study gap explored earlier, this study is designed to investigate the level of quality of life among female cancer patients in Jordan. The study further steps to detected whether there is a statistically significant differences in quality of life level among female cancer patients in Jordan based on qualification, age, and marital status variables.
Study questions
This study seeks to answer the fowling questions:
RQ1: What is the level of quality of life among female cancer patients in Jordan?
RQ2: Is there a statistically significant in level of quality of life among female cancer patients in Jordan based on qualification, age, and marital status variables?
Methodology
This study relied on a descriptive approach that includes references and sources to build the theoretical framework of the study. Moreover, a questionnaire was adopted for data and information collection, finally statistically analyzed to answer study questions as the primary source of the study.
Participants
For purpose of data collection (30) female cancer patients were randomly selected. come from different towns and cities. The sample represents almost all the existing socioeconomic classes such as high, middle, and low classes in the Jordan since social class differences they are similar in age, ranging from 18-55 years.
Tools of the study
The study adopted the quality of life scale Bushra Mubarak (2012), which includes 40 items divided into: Independency (5) items, environmental empowerment (7) items, personal growth (6) items, positive relationships with others (7) items, self-acceptance (7) items, and the target of life (8) items. The scales follow five-point Likert scale in which each item has 5 options, and each response is graded as follows: never (1 point). rarely (2 points), sometimes (3 points) usually (4 points), and always (5 points).
Validity and reliability
The scale was reviewed by a group of experts in the fields of psychology to check its validity. The experts’ comments were considered. The experts agreed that the items were clear and that the scale are suitable for the purpose of the study. The scale reliability was calculated using Cronbach’s Alpha correlation its ranged between (0.834 – 0.915). These results would present that the scale have a high degree of reliability.
Results
RQ1: What is the level of quality of life among female cancer patients in Jordan?
To answer the question, means, standard deviation and percentage have been calculated as shown in Table (1).
Table 1: results mean, standard deviation and percentage of quality of life scale.
Table (1) presents that the level of quality of life among female cancer patients in Jordan is moderate (Mean = 3.45, Percentage = 71.4%). The independency domain has got (Means 3.66, percentage 73.20%) and ranked first. Second the domain was the positive relationships with others (Mean 3.58, percentage 71.60). The environmental empowerment domain ranked third (Mean=3.60, percentage 70.00%). Finally, the self-acceptance domain has ranked last and got (Means= 3.30, percentage 64.80%).
RQ2: Is there a statistically significant in level of quality of life among female cancer patients in Jordan based on qualification, age, and marital status variables?
To answer the question, ONE WAY ANOVA analysis of variance have been calculated as listed in below Tables (2, 3 & 4).
Table 2: presents results of ONE WAY ANOVA based on qualification variable.
| Scale | Source of Variance | Sum of squares | df | Mean squares | F | α |
| Quality of life | between group | 4.03 | 3 | 1.34 | 3.14 | 0.22 |
| within group | 163.06 | 26 | 0.42 | |||
| Total | 167.07 | 29 |
*Significant at (α ≤ 0.05)
Results in table (2) showed there is no statistically different at (α ≤0.05) between means of quality of life among female cancer patients in Jordan based on qualification variable.
Table 3: shows results of ONE WAY ANOVA according to age variable.
| Scale | Source of Variance | Sum of squares | df | Mean squares | F | α |
| Quality of life | between group | 0.95 | 3 | 0.24 | 0.55 | 0.685 |
| within group | 166.15 | 26 | 0.43 | |||
| Total | 167.04 | 26 |
Table (3) presented no statistically different at (α ≤0.05) between means of quality of life among female cancer patients in Jordan according to age variable.
Table 4: lists results of ONE WAY ANOVA with respect marital status variable.
| Scale | Source of Variance | Sum of squares | df | Mean squares | F | α |
| Quality of life | between group | 2.36 | 3 | 0.81 | 1.83 | 0.137 |
| within group | 170.10 | 26 | 0.42 | |||
| Total | 172.51 | 26 |
*Significant at (α ≤ 0.05)
Results in table (4) listed no statistically different at (α ≤0.05) between means of quality of life among female cancer patients in Jordan with respect marital status variable.
Discussion
This study was designed to explain the level of quality of life among female cancer patients in Jordan. Furthermore, the study attempted to find out whether the variables of qualification, age, and marital status of the participants interacted with the level of quality of life. The results indicated that the level of quality of life among the participants was moderate level. Moreover, results find out that there was no statistically significant between means of participant based on qualification, age, and marital status variables. The quality of life can be explained by the fact that this group of women will feel satisfied, happy and able to satisfy their needs by getting rid of the disease, promoting the health and psychological services provided to them, and their lives will be much better than before, enabling them to practice a lifestyle that satisfies their desires and meets their needs, a sense of personal effectiveness and competence in dealing with the challenges of life, which makes them happy and self-satisfied, and helps to improve physical capacity and psychological competence.
Quality of life is the most important indicator of self-concept and body image among women; since the quality of life encompasses multiple overlapping aspects, affecting each other in women’s lives, women’s perception, and awareness of balancing the physical, psychological, and social aspects of life satisfaction and body image, enjoyment and positive presence. Therefore, the quality of life reflects compatibility, psychological satisfaction and a sense of happiness in life as a result of the formation of a compatible and adaptive personality, capable of meeting the different requirements of life, harmony with living conditions, cognition and self-satisfaction of life, where the quality of life is linked to the self-perception of life because it affects the individual’s assessment of objective aspects of life such as education, work, standard of living and social relations on the one hand, and the importance of these topics to the individual at a given time and circumstances on the other. Results of this study agrees with results found by Ba’li and Jaguli’s (2018) which showed that the female students’ quality of life is very high. There are no significant differences in students’ quality of life based on academic level, age, and style of residence variables.
Limitations of the study
The current study is limited to exploring the level of quality of life among female cancer patients in Jordan during the first quarter of 2022 years, in addition to examine the differences that arise between these variables based on participants qualification, age, and marital status according to the results obtained from the tools used in this study, i.e. Quality of Life Scale for Bushra Mubarak (2012).
References
Al-Dosari’s, F. (2020) Effectiveness of a mentoring program in improving the quality of life feeling in cancer patients in Riyadh. Journal of the Islamic University for Educational and Psychological Studies. Vol 29, No 2, pp 719 – 742.
Al-Shawi, S. S. (2017) Quality of Life and His Relationship with Psychological Happiness among Students of the Faculty of Physical Education and Sports Sciences for Girls / Baghdad University, International Journal of Advanced Sports Research, Volume 4, Issue 03.
Ba’li, M and Jaguli, Y. (2018) The quality of life of the students at The University of Masila field study on a sample of female students in the department of psychology at The University of Masila. Al-Jama Magazine in Psychological Studies and Educational Sciences, Volume 3, Numéro 1, Pages 413-431.
Barcaccia, B (2013). “Quality of Life: Everyone Wants It, But What Is It?”. Forbes/ Education.
Bognar . G : (2006) : the concept of Quality of life .Journal social theory and practice , vol . (3) . issue (4).p.561 .
Burtaverde, V (2012). self-esteem, body esteem and quality of life among obese women in Romania, Romanian Journal of Experimental Applied Psychology, Vol. 3, Issue 4.
Heinz-Herbert, N. (2004). “Social Indicators and Quality of Life Research: Background, Achievements and Current Trends” Genova, Nicolai, Ed. Advances in Sociological Knowledge Over Half a Century. Wiesbaden: VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften.
Ismail, S (2004) self-esteem and its reflection on aggressive behavior. Unpublished master’s thesis, Department of Psychology. Education and Arts Sciences, University of Algeria.
Layard, (2006). Happiness: Lessons from a New Science. London: Penguin.
Mansi, M. A & Kazem, A. M. (2006). The quality of life measure for university students. Proceedings of the Symposium on Psychology and Quality of Life (p. 63-78). Sultan Qaboos University, Oman, December 17-19.
Naissa, R. A (2012) Quality of Life for Students of Damascus and Tishreen Universities, Damascus University Magazine Volume 28 First Issue, 145-181.
Polanski, H (2000). understanding and Assessing Diabetes. Specific Quality of life, Perspectives in clinical research, 9(1):15 p.1-36.
Ryff,C, Love,G., Urry,H., Muller, D., Rosen_Kranz.M., Friedman.E., Davidson.R,& Singer.B.(2006). Psychological Well-Being and Ill- Being: Do They Have Distinct or Mirrored Biological Correlates? Psychotherapy Psychosomatics.
Shaqir, Z. M (2002): Body Image Scale ” Instruction Booklet, I1, Cairo, Egyptian Renaissance Library.
Arabic 
English