This cross-sectional observational study with a quantitative approach was developed with women who underwent breast cancer surgery in the period from 2007 to 2009. The aim was to characterize women who underwent such surgery and to analyze their self-esteem. A questionnaire was used to evaluate the self-esteem with the collection of sociodemographic and clinical data and the Rosenberg Scale. The majority of the women were aged between 41 and 50 years, were married, catholic, had low levels of schooling and received on average three times the minimum wage. Regarding the clinical aspects, the majority underwent conservative surgery performed on the left side and received complementary treatments, mainly endocrine therapy. Concerning self-esteem, 54.10% of the women had high self-esteem; Cronbach's alpha of 0.77. The women who had high self-esteem were married, had returned to work, underwent breast reconstruction and had received no complementary treatment.
Self concept; Women's health; Nursing; Breast neoplasms
