Correlation between social support and psychological resilience levels in patients undergoing colorectal cancer surgery: a descriptive study

Psychological resilience is considered to be promising especially for patients with CRC, which is among the most frequent types of cancer and is known to have serious physical and psycho-social impacts on individuals. Thus, it is stated that psychosocial interventions need to be done in order to overcome emotional stress. This study was conducted to determine the correlation between social support and resilience in patients undergoing surgical therapy due to colorectal cancer. The study is descriptive and cross sectional. A patient information form, Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale, and Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support were used to interview 103 patients undergoing colorectal cancer surgery. It was determined that family support and significant other support were positively correlated with subscale and total scores of the Resilience Scale (p < 0.05). It was determined that the model was highly significant (R-2 = 0.113; p < 0001). An increase of 1 unit in healthcare professionals support triggered an increase of one-unit (0.976) in psychological resilience (p:0.014). It was determined that social support provided to patients, undergoing surgical therapy due to colorectal cancer, by family and healthcare professionals, played an essential role in increasing resilience.