COGNITIVE DETERMINANTS OF QUALITY-OF-LIFE AFTER ONSET OF CANCER

To investigate cognitive coping styles and how they might relate to pe rceived quality of life for individuals seriously ill with cancer 41 m ostly elderly, male patients with a wide variety of cancers were admin istered the Illness Effects Questionnaire, a quality of life measure, the COPE Questionnaire, which samples different coping strategies, and questions regarding beliefs about illness behaviors, expectations abo ut cancer's effects, comparisons of the participants' lives with those of others, feelings since having cancer, and motivation to resist lif estyle disruptions. Six of the belief factors and two of the coping st rategies were related to perceived quality of life. If the effects of cancer were less than expected, quality of life was better; with an ex pectation of a negative effect from the disease, lowered quality of li fe was perceived. Two coping strategies were related to quality of lif e, suppression of competing activities and using religious practices. Other relationships were also discussed.