Background and objective

With the increase in the survival rate of patients undergoing prostate cancer surgery, management of the quality of life has become important. Particularly, since sex-related disabilities of patients immensely affect their quality of life, management of the same is of utmost necessity. This study aimed to investigate whether support from friends could play a mediating role in patients with prostate cancer, after radical prostatec-tomy, for the management of sex-related symptoms and improvement of the quality of life.

Material and methods 

This descriptive survey was conducted on 212 patients, aged 20 years or older, diagnosed with prostate can-cer, and subjected to radical prostatectomy, in two South Korean University Hospitals. Data were collected from June 20 to August 10, 2017, using self-report questionnaires. Data were analyzed using the t-test, Pearson’s correlation coefficient, and multiple regression analysis. A mediation analysis was performed according to Baron and Kenny, along with bootstrapping methods.

Results

Patients’ quality of life was significantly correlated with the experience of sex-related symptoms (r = –0.65, P< 0.001) and support from friends (r = 0.47, P< 0.001); the latter had a significant negative correlation with the experience of sex-related symptoms (r = –0.35, P < 0.001). Support from friends showed a partial mediating effect in the correlation between the experience of sex-related symptoms and quality of life (95% CI, –0.65 to –0.06).

Conclusions

Our findings indicated the necessity of psychosocial nursing programs that could utilize the support from friends to improve the quality of life of patients with prostate cancer following radical prostatectomy.