Dyadic Coping and Illness Management among Postoperative Breast Cancer Patients and Their Spouses: An actor-partner...

Improving illness management among postoperative breast cancer patient-spouse dyads is important for prognosis, and dyadic coping is a key influencing factor. However, current evidence has primarily focused on psychological outcomes, while the dyadic roles of dyadic coping in behavioral process remain underexplored, particularly from a dimensional perspective.

To examine and compare illness management and dyadic coping among postoperative breast cancer patients and their spouses, and investigate the dyadic effects of dyadic coping on illness management.

A total of 232 dyads of breast cancer patients and their spouses were recruited in China between December 2023 and September 2024. At three months post-surgery, patients and spouses completed the Cancer Self-Management Assessment Scale and the Caregiver's Contribution to Cancer Patient's Self-Management Scale, respectively, to assess illness management. Dyadic coping was measured using the Chinese version of the Dyadic Coping Inventory, including stress communication, supportive dyadic coping, delegated dyadic coping, common dyadic coping, and negative dyadic coping. The Actor-Partner Interdependence Model was used to examine dyadic effects between dyadic coping dimensions and illness management.

Dyadic model results indicated that patients' or spouses' stress communication, supportive dyadic coping and common dyadic coping showed positive actor effects on their own illness management. Patients' stress communication and delegated dyadic coping had positive partner effects on spouses' illness management, while spouses' negative dyadic coping exhibited both negative actor and partner effects on their own and patients' illness management.

This study demonstrated the important roles of dyadic coping in illness management, offering guidance for developing dyadic coping-targeted dyadic interventions to optimize dyads' behavioral outcomes.