Open to Exploration? Association of Personality Factors With Complementary Therapy Use After Breast Cancer Treatment

Autor: Kirsti I. Toivonen MSc, Rie Tamagawa PhD, Michael Speca PsyD, Joanne Stephen PhD, Linda E. Carlson PhD
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2018
Předmět:
Zdroj: Integrative Cancer Therapies, Vol 17 (2018)
Druh dokumentu: article
ISSN: 1552-695X
15347354
DOI: 10.1177/1534735417753539
Popis: Purpose: Many cancer survivors seek complementary therapies (CTs) to improve their quality of life. While it is well-known that women who are younger, more highly educated, and have higher incomes are more likely to use CTs, individual differences such as personality factors have been largely unexplored as predictors of CT use. Methods: In a secondary analysis of a larger study, 270 women with stage I to III breast cancer completed self-report measures of demographic and illness-related information, personality variables, and use of several different types of CTs. A series of logistic regression models were used to explore whether demographic, illness-related, and personality variables predicted different types of CT use. Results: Prior relationships between education and CT use were replicated. There were no significant relationships between illness-related variables and different types of CT use. Of the 5 personality factors, only openness to experience was a significant predictor of multiple types of CT use. Conclusions: Openness to experience may represent an individual difference variable that predicts CT use among cancer survivors. CTs themselves may represent a form of intellectual curiosity and novelty seeking. Further studies are needed to replicate and examine the generalizability of the relationship between openness to experience and CT use in oncology populations.
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