Illness Identity and the Self-regulatory Model in Recovery from Early Stage Gynaecological Cancer

Bibliographic Data

ID7844310
AuthorsE Bradley (0000-0001-5877-2298), E J Bradley, E Calvert (University of Staffordshire), Marian Pitts, M K Pitts (Australian Research Centre for Sex, Health and Society, LaTrobe University, Melbourne, Australia), C W E Redman (North Staffordshire Royal Infirmary, Stoke on Trent, UK)
Year2001
Volume6
Issue5
Pages511-521
Publication date2001-09-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Health Psychology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1359-1053 • E-ISSN: 1461-7277
PublisherSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/135910530100600505
PMID22049450
OpenAlexW2051395463
LanguageEN
Citations received3
References cited32

Women in recovery from early stage gynaecological cancer have extremely good survival and low recurrence rates. Despite this, women continue to feel vulnerable to cancer recurrence for years after treatment. Semi-structured interviews were utilized to explore the factors involved in recovery from gynaecological cancer. This article argues that the illness identity of gynaecological cancer perpetuates a vulnerability to cancer recurrence. The absence of self-diagnosis prior to medical diagnosis is important in the formation of gynaecological cancer illness identity. A lack of self-diagnosis may be due to the ‘normalization’ of initial symptomatology. It is suggested that illness identity is responsible for maintaining fears of symptom-free cancer recurrence. The self-regulatory model is employed to explore this process, looking in particular at the reinforcement of reassurance needs

Biology · Cancer · Identity (music · Stage (stratigraphy · Cancer survivorship and care · Family Support in Illness · Medicine · Psychology · Internal Medicine · Oncology

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