川端 博子, 谷田貝 麻美子
日本家政学会誌 63(2) 93-102 2012年2月 査読有り
We conducted a questionnaire survey on 344 females who had undergone breast cancer surgery in order to investigate their postoperative concerns for clothing. We focused on the inconveniences of clothing and on their attitude and consciousness towards clothes in analyzing the results from the standpoint of their quality of life, QOL, and their body image, BI. The results obtained were as follows: (1) The QOL ratings of the participants, on the whole, were not particularly low and the inconvenience felt in everyday life was considered to be little. However, QOL seemed to be closely related to each patient’s stage of disease, number of operations undergone, postoperative time lapse, and side effects of the treatments given following surgery. On the other hand, BI results, in general, were low and reflected the participants’ pessimistic attitude towards their body image. The BI ratings seemed to be closely related to the degree of deformity in their breast area, and showed no trace of recovery even after a considerable postoperative time lapse. (2) The participants expressed their feeling of inconvenience related to clothing matters.Clothes that did not reveal their bust line were more often chosen, meaning that their choice of clothes was limited in shape and design. The participants with lower QOL ratings seemed to feel more inconveniences in the function or comfort of their clothes, indicating that their clothes were, for example, too tight or sensitive to the skin, while the participants with poorer BI felt more inconveniences in revealing their bust line. (3) While the general results for their attitude and consciousness towards clothes showed a negative tendency, the participants with lower QOL ratings tended to try and keep the level of comfort of their clothes, and the participants with lower BI ratings tended to take on a more positive consciousness and attitude towards clothes. Similar results could also be speculated from the analysis of their free description.