Application of Self-Regulation Model in Endometrial Cancer

Endometrial cancer is the gynecological cancer with the highest incident rate in Taiwan. Compared with other types of gynecological cancers, women generally do not have sufficient information about, and thus pay less attention to, endometrial cancer. For endometrial cancer, early diagnosis is important to achieving a high rate of survival. However, endometrial cancer has negative effects due to insufficient information, leading to women having an unrealistic illness representation that influences their coping behaviors and disease outcomes. Leventhal’s self-regulation model indicates that the illness representation of patients is based on received external information and past experiences, and that patients undergo the three stages of illness representation, coping, and appraisal when suffering from disease. In this article, the Leventhal self-regulation model was applied to better understand the correlation between illness representation, coping behaviors, and disease outcomes in patients with endometrial cancer at different disease phases. Clinical health providers may utilize this self-regulation model to help patients with endometrial cancer develop positive illness representation and adopt active coping strategies to realize a better adjustment.