Iranian Journal of Rehabilitation Research in Nursing

Introduction: Despite outstanding progresses in medical science and technology, breast cancer is still considered one of the most important diseases and the most prevalent women's cancer and the second cause of death among them. The present study was conducted aiming to compare general health and marital satisfaction of breast cancer survivors with mastectomy, breast preservation and cancer free women in Tehran. Methods: The present study had a cross sectional, causal- comparative design. The statistical population included breast cancer survivors who had undergone mastectomy or surgery with breast preservation and normal women in the city of Tehran. We recruited 80 women for each group (mastectomy group, breast preservation and cancer free women) using convenience sampling method from specialized medical centers of Tehran. The instruments were general health questionnaire (GHQ) and ENRICH marital satisfaction questionnaire. The data were analyzed with SPSS software ver.20 via one-way ANOVA and post hoc Tukey tests. Results: the results showed that there is a significant difference between the mean scores of marital satisfaction and general health in the three groups (p<0.01). Conclusion: according to the findings of the study, the physical problems resulting from breast cancer damages psychological wellbeing of the survivors too, so it seems necessary to take into account appropriate psychological interventions as needed.