Self-efficacy in breast cancer patients: A systematic review

ABSTRACT: Breast cancer is the most common diagnosed cancer and the leading cause of death worldwide. Breast cancer is diagnosed in 25.5% of Iranian women. However, it has a good survival rate which is considered as a chronic disease with numerous medical and non medical problems. Research on quality of life and self efficacy in patients with breast cancer at different stages of the disease and evaluation of physical, mental and social wellbeing helps promoting their positive health behavior resulting in better patient adjustment to the disease. The aims of this paper are to describe, compare and critique available literature on self efficacy in breast cancer patients, and propose directions for future research.Springer, Pub med, Elsevier, Science direct, web of science, Wiley Interscience were searched for literatures on self efficacy for breast cancer patients from 2000 to 2012.search terms such as self efficacy and breast cancer were used. Most of the studies showed that Self-efficacy is related to variables like: Quality of life, Emotional wellness, Fatigue Time and etc. Comparison and critique of these studies revealed important limitations like dearth of interventional research on this topic to increase self efficacy. There is also additional limitation such as: lack of standard tools, inadequate sample size, and failure to assess cultural differences. we suggest that, it would be better to focus on new strategies to increase self efficacy in breast cancer patient future studies. Adequate sample size and using specific standard tools with high validity and reliability is necessary.