THE EFFECT OF EMOTIONAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT ON STRESS, AND OPTIMISM IN WOMEN WITH BREAST CANCER

Women who breast cancer are often diagnosed of having emotional and psychosocial problems. This distress can influence immune system, and may be decreasing individual’s ability to fight the disease and metastasis. Emotional Quality Management (EQM) model is strategy with a focus to increase emotional maturity. Emotional maturity will lead to positive perception of women with breast cancer. The objective of this study was to find the effect of EQM training on stress reduction, and the enhancement of optimism in women with breast cancers. Twenty-eight women with breast cancer undergoing chemotherapy in Dr Soetomo hospital outpatient clinic were selected and divided two groups. First group was given with EQM training for four times and the second group served as control. Stres perception and optimism were measured with questionnaire. Results obtained from each group were analyzed using analysis of variance with Wilcoxon Range Test, and U Mann Whitney test. This study demonstrates that EQM training for women with breast cancer had significantly lowered perceived stress, raised optimism. In conclusion, Emotional Quality Management improved the perception of breast cancer that enhances optimism, turning distress into eustress. Improved perception of stress modulate the activity of the HPA axis, resulting in improved cellular immunity that is necessary for the patient’s body resistence against breast cancer cells.