Investigating the relationship between health literacy and fear of recurrence in breast cancer patients with the mediating role of self-efficacy

 Health literacy and self-efficacy play an important role in the fear of recurrence in breast cancer patients.

 A descriptive correlational research of structural equation modeling and a statistical population included all female patients with breast cancer in Tehran province who had referred to Imam Khomeini Hospital for follow-up treatment, and 172 of them were selected using a purposive sampling method. ; Then, the self-efficacy questionnaires of Sherer et al., fear of recurrence and standardized health literacy were completed for the patients. The data of the research was analyzed using the software of Lisrel statistics.

 The results showed that there was a significant relationship between health literacy and fear of recurrence. The results of modeling of structural equations showed the good fit of the model with the experimental data and the general hypothesis of the research was confirmed. Self-efficacy in dealing with cancer has a significant direct effect on health literacy. Also, health literacy showed an indirect and significant effect on the fear of recurrence through the self-efficacy of coping with cancer.

 The result showed the effective role of health literacy in increasing the efficiency of patients to deal with the disease and reducing the fear of recurrence in breast cancer patients.