Investigation of women's styles of coping with stress in the prevention of cancer and their health beliefs

Objective and Methods: Cancer is a serious, life-threatening disease. Stress is a risk factor for cancer. This is a descriptive study which aims to evaluate women's styles of coping with stress in the prevention of cancer and their health beliefs. Findings: According to the results of this study, 51% of women were within 36-59 age group, 63% did nothing to prevent cancer. 62% considered the stress as the most important cause of cancer. When the styles of coping with stress and traditional health beliefs of women were analyzed, women were found to have an approach of desperation in their coping with stress and had traditional health beliefs. Discussion: Though women knew that stress leads to cancer, their desperate approach in their style of coping with stress and their having traditional health beliefs constitute an additional risk for cancer. Thus they need to have educational support on this issue.