Kavitha Konnakkaparambil Ramakrishnan1 , Sreekumar Damodaran2
BACKGROUND Body image can be defined as a subjective picture of an individual’s own physical appearance established by self-observation and by noticing the reaction of others. Breast cancer and its treatment has been shown to have tremendous impact on the body image of the patients. We wanted to assess the level of body image disturbance in patients undergoing mastectomy for breast cancer and identify the relation between the body image disturbance and measures of psychosocial morbidity and quality of life. METHODS 35 female patients who had mastectomy for breast cancer were assessed preoperatively, immediately after surgery and 2 months after the surgery. They were administered body image scale questionnaire, HADS (Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale), General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) and WHO QOL BREF. RESULTS Our results showed that 24 out of 35 patients (68.5 %) were Body Image Scale positive at the first interview itself. The number of positive patients increased to 27 at the second interview (77.1 %), but this change was not statistically significant and there was no change from second to third visit. Those who were Body Image Scale Positive had significantly higher anxiety, depression and GHQ12 scores. Those who had a body image disturbance also had a poorer quality of life across all domains. CONCLUSIONS This study shows that there is a high level of body image disturbance in patients undergoing mastectomy for breast cancer even before surgery. This high level also contributes significantly to their psychosocial morbidity and also negatively affects their quality of life.
