title: Relationships between social support and social image concerns in Turkish women with breast cancer.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Breast cancer is one of the most common cancer types in women and is amongst the most devastating and stressful events in the life of women. The external appearance of breast cancer patients usually changes due to the surgical and/or medical therapies used. An association may be found between social support perception and social appearance anxiety in patients with breast cancer in the period after mastectomy. Therefore, this study investigated the social appearance anxiety and social support status in women with breast cancer in our country.
  
  
  METHODS
  A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted in breast cancer patients undergoing treatment or follow-up in Medical Oncology and General Surgery departments.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The mean age of the participants was 51.13 ± 8.48 years (range, 24-74 years) with nearly half of the patients (40.6%) aged 40-50 years. Of the patients, 39.1% had stage 3 breast cancer. The mean score on Cancer Patient's Social Support Scale (CPSSS) was 134.85 ± 9.35, and there was a significant difference in CPSSS total scores between the age groups, educational levels, self-reported income levels and stage of disease (p<0.05). The mean Social Image Anxiety Scale (SIAS) score was found to be 34.30 ± 9.35 (min:16, max:66) in women participating in this study. The CPSSS and SIAS scores of the participants were inversely correlated, and the SIAS score was found to decrease with the increasing CPSSS score but with no statistically significant difference (r=-0.110, p=0.217).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Social appearance anxiety is higher in the patients with poor social support.
authors.affiliation: Eskisehir Health High School, Eskisehir Osmangazi University, Eskisehir, Turkey E-mail : aozaydin26@hotmail.com.
authors.forename: Ayse
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ozkaraman
authors.forename: Ilkay
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Culha
authors.forename: Zehra Cicek
authors.initials: ZC
authors.lastname: Fadiloglu
authors.forename: Nedime
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Kosgeroglu
authors.forename: Serap
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Gokce
authors.forename: Guler Balci
authors.initials: GB
authors.lastname: Alparslan
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001007:Anxiety / Q000523:psychology*; D001828:Body Image / Q000523:psychology*; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000523:psychology* / Q000601:surgery; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008408:Mastectomy; D008875:Middle Aged; D012647:Self-Assessment; D012944:Social Support; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014421:Turkey; D055815:Young Adult