title: Considering the unspoken: the role of death cognition in quality of life among women with and without breast cancer.
abstract: This study examined how breast cancer diagnosis influences underlying cognitions and explicit worries about death, and their roles in health-related quality of life (QOL). Forty-two women who underwent surgery for the removal of either a cancerous or benign breast mass indicated their worries about dying and completed measures of death-thought accessibility and QOL. Women with cancer reported lowered physical, emotional, and functional well-being. Further, although they did not differ in explicit worry about death, women with cancer (compared to those with a benign mass) evidenced greater death-thought accessibility, which in turn mediated the effect of cancer diagnosis on well-being.
authors.affiliation: Texas Christian University, Fort Worth, TX 76129, USA. c.cox@tcu.edu
authors.forename: Cathy R
authors.initials: CR
authors.lastname: Cox
authors.forename: Stephanie A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Reid-Arndt
authors.forename: Jamie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Arndt
authors.forename: Richard P
authors.initials: RP
authors.lastname: Moser
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001293:Attitude to Death; D001940:Breast / Q000601:surgery; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology / Q000523:psychology* / Q000601:surgery; D003071:Cognition; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D011788:Quality of Life / Q000523:psychology*