a descriptive comparative study of marital satisfaction among healthy women and women with breast cancer

Background & aim: breast cancer, the most common malignancy among women,affects many aspects of their lives. the present study was conducted to comparemarital satisfaction in women with breast cancer and healthy women.methods: this descriptive comparative study was performed on 95 women with adefinitive diagnosis of breast cancer and 95 healthy women who referred to thehealth centers and breast cancer clinics of mostafa hospital in ilam, western iranin 2019. data were collected using demographic and enrich marital satisfactionquestionnaires. data analysis was carried out by spss software (version 20) usingindependent t-test and chi-square test.results: the mean total score of marital satisfaction in the healthy group washigher than breast cancer group (125.41± 10.17 vs 96.27 ± 9.46) (p˂0.001). themean score of marital satisfaction dimensions including marital satisfaction(38.65± 4.70 vs 27.11± 4.16); communication (35.10 ±5.59, vs 28.91 ±6.41);conflict resolution (30.54 ±6.45, vs 25.74 ± 5.90) and ideal distortion (21.12 ±3.36vs14.51 ± 2.79) was also higher in the healthy group compared with breast cancergroup (p˂0.001).conclusion: breast cancer can result in reduced marital satisfaction in differentdimensions. therefore, providing appropriate psychological counselling helpwomen with cancer and their spouses to enhance their marital satisfaction.