A cross-sectional study of coping strategies among a sample of women with breast cancer in South-South, Nigeria

Sep 22, 2026

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Coping strategies are central to psychological well-being and healthy survivorship for women with breast cancer, yet evidence on coping strategies and their associated factors in Nigeria remains limited. This cross-sectional study examined disengagement coping and its relationships with sociodemographic and illness-related factors among 240 patients attending a tertiary hospital in South-South, Nigeria. Findings highlight greater reliance on disengagement coping than engagement coping and link disengagement coping to multiple patient factors, supporting psychosocial intervention needs.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages11

Reading Time28 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Background

Methods

Results

Conclusion

Background

Breast cancer burden and care context in Nigeria

Edet etal. BMC Cancer (2026) 26:403 BMC Cancer [https://doi.org/10.1186/s12885-026-15770-4](https://doi.org/10.1186/s12885-026-15770-4) RESEARCH Open Access A cross-sectional study of coping strategies among a sample of women with breast cancer in South-South, Nigeria Bassey Edet1,2†, Foluke Oladele Sarimiye3†, Emmanuel Essien 1, Bonnie Lu4, Paige Harris4, John Azimi1, Sarah Lalji-Mawji4, Joseph Udosen 1, Christine Edet5, Tinuke Oluwasefunmi Olagunju6, Olubukola Folayemi Kolawole4,7,8, Britta Klara Ostermeyer9, Gary Andrew Chaimowitz4,7,8 and Andrew Toyin Olagunju1,4,7,8,9,10* Abstract Background Coping strategies are essential for psychological well-being and healthy survivorship experience of patients with breast cancer. However, there is a research gap in the understanding of coping strategies and their associated factors among patients with breast cancer in Nigeria. This study aimed to investigate coping strategies, focusing on disengagement coping and its relationship with sociodemographic and illness-related factors in a sample of patients with breast cancer in South-South, Nigeria. Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted among 240 breast cancer patients at a tertiary hospital in the South‒South region of Nigeria. The participants completed a clinico-sociodemographic questionnaire to gather their background information and the 32-item Coping Strategies Inventory (CSI-32) to assess coping. Results The mean age of the participants was 46.8 years (SD = 13 .4), and most participants were employed (89 . 2%), married (62 . 1%), and had children (74 . 6%) . Most participants (n = 179, 74 . 6%) presented with advanced breast cancers (stage 3 and 4) and reported poor treatment adherence (n = 185, 77 . 1%) . The findings on CSI-32 revealed a significantly greater reliance on disengagement coping (61 . 25%, n = 147) strategies (e. g., wishful thinking and social withdrawal) compared with engagement coping (38.75%, n = 93). Disengagement coping was significantly associated with those with fewer children, χ2(1, N = 240) = 4 . 93, p = . 03; post-primary education level, χ2(1, N = 240) = 5 . 71, p =. 01; being employed, χ²(1, N = 240) = 6 . 38, p = . 01; early cancer stage, χ2(1, N = 240) = 2 . 94, p = . 03; and poor treatment adherence, χ2(1, N = 240) = 3 . 22, p = .03. Following regression analysis, individuals with disengagement coping were more likely to be employed, have post-primary education, and report poor treatment adherence. Conclusion There is a need for psychosocial interventions to bolster healthy coping strategies amongst patients with breast cancer in this region, preferably by reducing a reliance on disengagement coping and ultimately improving †Bassey Edet and Foluke Oladele Sarimiye contributed equally to this work. *Correspondence: Andrew Toyin Olagunju [andytinu@gmail.com](andytinu@gmail.com) Full list of author information is available at the end of the article © The Author(s) 2026. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License, which permits any non-commercial use, sharing, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if you modified the licensed material. You do not have permission under this licence to share adapted material derived from this article or parts of it. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit [http://creati](http://creati)[vecommons.org/

FAQs

What was the study’s main objective?

To investigate coping strategies, focusing on disengagement coping, and assess its relationship with sociodemographic and illness-related factors among women with breast cancer in South-South, Nigeria.

How was coping measured in the study?

Participants completed a clinico-sociodemographic questionnaire and the 32-item Coping Strategies Inventory (CSI-32) to assess coping strategies.

What coping strategy showed higher reliance among participants?

Disengagement coping showed significantly greater reliance than engagement coping, with disengagement strategies including wishful thinking and social withdrawal.

Sep 22, 2026

Upload by Jake