Supportive Care in Cancer

, Volume 22, Issue 11, pp 2981–2986 | Cite as

Coping with oral cancer: the impact of health and disease-related personality traits

  • Madiha Rana
  • Nils-Claudius Gellrich
  • Franziska Czens
  • Anastasios Kanatas
  • Majeed Rana
Original Article
First Online:
Received:
Accepted:

Abstract

Purpose

Oral tumours lead to critical reductions in quality of life and well being. Coping with illness is a multidimensional construct that is affected by various factors, including social structure, social support, locus of control and religious considerations. However, the effect of personality on coping with illness has hardly been studied. In this context, just one personality model has been developed, but this defines personality in very wide dimensions. Therefore, this study considered the personality factors related to health and disease and aimed to identify potential clinical applications in patients with oral cancer.

Methods

We enrolled 104 patients suffering from oral cancer. Participants were asked about their personality and illness coping styles using the Freiburg Personality Inventory and the Freiburg Questionnaire of Coping with Illness, respectively.

Results

Regression analyses revealed that specific personality structures of the patients determine their way of coping. Patients primarily used active and problem-oriented coping styles; spirituality, depressive coping and minimization were used less frequently.

Conclusions

The results demonstrate that personality affects coping behaviour. When treating patients, both situational factors and personality traits affect how patients cope with their disease. We note that it is important to give particular attention to patients who use depressive coping styles, as these patients are often incapable of coping with their diseases without external support.

Keywords

Personality Coping Squamous cell carcinoma Oncology 
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Notes

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethics statement/confirmation of patient permission

The study was approved by the local ethics committee at the Hannover Medical School, Germany (EK 5586/2009). Study subjects were enrolled in a clinical protocol, reviewed and approved by the institutional cancer board. The study is registered in the German Clinical Trials Register (DRKS00004836). Before the study began, written informed consent was obtained from each patient.

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Copyright information

© Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2014

Authors and Affiliations

  • Madiha Rana
    • 1
  • Nils-Claudius Gellrich
    • 2
  • Franziska Czens
    • 1
  • Anastasios Kanatas
    • 3
  • Majeed Rana
    • 2
  1. 1.Department of Personality Psychology and Psychological AssessmentHelmut-Schmidt-University/University of the German Federal Armed Forces HamburgHamburgGermany
  2. 2.Department of Craniomaxillofacial SurgeryHannover Medical SchoolHannoverGermany
  3. 3.Department of Maxillofacial SurgeryLeeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, St James’s Institute of OncologyLeedsUK

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