Opioid-taking self-efficacy affects the quality of life of Taiwanese patients with cancer pain

Goals: Quality of life is an important indicator for evaluating the outcome of treatment for patients with cancer pain. Perceived self-efficacy has been reported to play an important role in controlling quality of life (QOL). Limited studies have focused on opioid-taking self-efficacy effects on the patients’ QOL, which is caused by cancer pain. The purpose of this study was to evaluate how much of the variance in QOL among Taiwanese cancer patients with pain could be accounted for by opioid-taking self-efficacy. Materials and methods: This cross-sectional study included 109 cancer patients who had taken prescribed opioid analgesics for cancer-related pain in the past week and completed the Opioid-Taking sSelf-Efficacy Scale and European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Group Questionnaire. Main results: There was a significant correlation between scores on self-efficacy total scale and functional QOL (r = 0.30, p < 0.01) and symptomatic QOL (r = −0.22, p < 0.05). The opioid-taking self-efficacy total scale accounted for 8 % (R² = 0.08, p < 0.01) of the variance in predicting the patients’ functional QOL and 7 % (R² = 0.07, p < 0.01) of the variance in predicting the patients’ symptomatic QOL. Conclusions: This study highlights the potential importance of a patient’s opioid-taking self-efficacy beliefs in their quality of life, which is relevant to cancer pain.