Body image and self-esteem in women with breast cancer participating in a psychosocial intervention program

One of the issues of major interest in relation to breast cancer has been patients' adjustment to the changes in body image that treatment produces. The goals of the present study are related to various aspects of body image and self-esteem. These objectives include: a) to examine the effectiveness of a psychosocial intervention designed to enhance body image and raise self-esteem, by comparing an intervention and a control group at each of three measurement points: pre-treatment, post-treatment and follow up, and b) to analyze the influence of sociodemographic and medical (type of surgery and type of treatment) variables on body image and self-esteem. Results show that, in terms of body image, the intervention group scores higher in post-treatment and follow-up, whereas for self-esteem the difference only shows up in the follow-up, the time elapsed variable being relevant. In relation to type of surgery, women with a tumorectomy had a more positive body image than women with a mastectomy.