Coping Strategies with Stress and Its Associated Factors among Cancer Patients

Background Cancer is a huge public health issue that affects people all over the world and it is one of the top three causes of mortality in low-income nations. In Ethiopian patients showed lower quality of life in most dimensions, especially in financial difficulties, physical functioning, pain, and appetite loss. Therefore, this study aimed to assess coping strategies with stress and associated factors among cancer diagnosed patients at Jimma medical center. Method and material : A cross-sectional study was carried out at Jimma medical center among 422 study participants. Simple random sampling was employed to select study participants. A structured interviewer administered questionnaire was used. Bivariate analysis and multivariable logistic regression were performed to assess the association between the variables. P-value less than or equal to 0.05 was taken as cut of value to be significant. Result 53.2% of the study participants had positive coping strategy for cancer related stress. Educational level [AOR = 5.914 and 95% CI (2.344, 14.921)], social support [AOR = 3.916 and 95% CI (1.886, 8.132)], and Psychological and spiritual support [AOR = 6.453 and 95% CI (3.084, 13.503)] were positively associated with copying strategy with stress whereas, monthly income [AOR = 0.021 and 95% CI ((0.007, 0.064)] and level of pain [AOR = 0.231 and 95% CI (0.091, 0.588)] were negatively associated. Conclusion and recommendation: near to half of study participants had negative coping strategy. There was a statically significant association between coping strategy and educational level, social support, psychological and spiritual support, monthly income, and level of pain. In the future, better to take special attention on the accessibility of cancer treatment and social support in order to address the use different coping strategies.