Purpose: Continual illness uncertainty can affect how people perceive and interpret their well-being. Some cognitive and spiritual factors may be involved in the management of disruptive thoughts and emotions that can emerge during the experience of cancer.
Material and methods: An evidence-based integrative model was developed to evaluate and show the role that mindfulness, acceptance, self-efficacy, uncertainty, meaning, and purpose in life play in the self-perception of well-being in individuals with cancer. This evidence-based integrative model was conducted using relevant and selected studies.
Results: An integrative model for self-perception of well-being has been proposed. This model integrates evidence-based findings and provides clear principles for clinicians and researchers. This integrative model proposes that mindfulness, acceptance, self-efficacy perception, and uncertainty can predict how people with cancer perceive their well-being. The model also posits that meaning and purpose in life can act as mediators or moderators of this prediction.
Conclusions: This integrative model involves the multidimensionality of human beings and facilitates the understanding of some key factors for the design of therapeutic approaches such as Acceptance & Commitment Therapy or Meaning-Centered Psychotherapy.IMPLICATIONS FOR REHABILITATIONMindfulness, acceptance, self-efficacy, uncertainty, meaning, and purpose in life can be highly relevant for clinical oncology.An integrative model is proposed to understand the combined influence of these factors on patients with cancer.This model may favor a better integration of well-known interventions, such as Mindfulness-based approaches, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), and Meaning-Centered Psychotherapy (MCP).
Keywords: Cancer; cognition; emotion; self-perception; spirituality; uncertainty; well-being.