Relationship between fatigue and self-compassion and associated factors in patients with hematological cancer: A cross-sectional study.

PURPOSE: This study was carried out to examine the relationship between fatigue and self-compassion, and to identify the factors associated with these variables in patients with hematological cancer.

METHODS

The study was conducted with 120 patients with hematological cancer who received treatment in a hospital in Antalya, Turkey, between January 2022 and January 2023. A personal information form, the Piper Fatigue Scale, and the Self-Compassion Scale were used to collect the data. After evaluating the normality of the data, t-test, analysis of variance, correlation, and regression analyses were performed.

RESULTS

There was a moderately significant negative relationship between fatigue and self-compassion. Patients with a family history of cancer, chronic disease, greater pain, malnutrition, constipation, nausea, vomiting, loss of appetite, more severe sleep problems, higher ECOG Performance Status, and those who coped by crying were associated with greater fatigue. Patients who were 65 years of age or younger, had less income than expenses, had greater weight, had more stress symptoms, had a shorter daily sleep time, and coped by making humor and crying were associated with lower self-compassion.

CONCLUSIONS

We concluded that there was a moderate negative relationship between fatigue and self-compassion. Also, fatigue and self-compassion varied according to sociodemographic and disease-related characteristics. The results of our study indicate that more research is needed to establish whether there is causation between the two constructs.