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What Is Missing for You to Be Happy? Comparison of the Pursuit of Happiness Among Cancer Patients, Informal Caregivers, and Healthy Individuals

Context: After cancer diagnosis, personal value priorities may change in a way that would transform such values and how life is perceived by cancer patients and their caregivers, including happiness and its pursuit.; Objectives: The objective of the study was to analyze and compare what cancer patients, informal caregivers, and healthy population believe that would make them happy.; Methods: A qualitative content analysis was performed on the responses to a single question: "What is missing for you to be happy?" Narratives of cancer patients (n = 242, face-to-face interview), informal caregivers (n = 125, face-to-face interview), and healthy participants (n = 1,671, recruited through social media, online survey) were analyzed. Word clouds were created for each group of participants. Contents were identified and frequencies were compared among participants by means of chi-square and Fisher's exact tests.; Results: Overall, participants were pursuing better health (n = 288, 14.1%), better interpersonal relationships (n = 456, 22.4%), money (n = 412, 20.2%), and work-related aspects (n = 481, 23.6%). Cancer patients and informal caregivers sought better health and cure more often than when compared to healthy people (P < 0.001). Among cancer patients, survivors' profile tended to be similar to that of the healthy population concerning what they need to be happy. Unexpectedly, "cure" (22.7%) was more frequent among participants with incurable cancer.; Conclusion: Regardless of the group they were in, participants sought happiness in what they considered to be important to their lives, but it was something they did not have at the time of the interview. Psychoeducational and cognitive-behavioral strategies focused on how to deal with life expectations among people facing cancer are awaited.

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Key Information

Type of Reference
Jour
Type of Work
Journal article
Publisher
Elsevier B V
ISBN/ISSN
1873-6513
Publication Year
2019
Issue Number
3
Journal Titles
Journal Of Pain And Symptom Management
Volume Number
58
Start Page
417
End Page
426 e4