Foundation:

facing cancer constitutes a critical process in family life which is modulated by social support and adaptive resources.

Objective:

to determine the affectation that produces the diagnosis of cancer in older adults in family health.

Method:

a retrospective cross descriptive study with a mixed approach, with a non-experimental design was developed in 40 families of the community Centro Victoria of Sagua La Grande between January 2016 and June 2017. They were selected by an intentional not probabilistic sampling. The variables studied were: level of cancer repercussion, assigned sense, impact in family health, social support, adaptive resources, and affectation to the family health. The methodology proposed by González y Herrera was used. It was evaluated the association among the variables through the non- parametric method of Spearman.

Results:

in the 62,5 % of the families cancer had a moderate repercussion, the negative valuation predominated in 57,5 %. In the 52,5 % it caused a predisposing impact to the health family. A 55,2 % does not enough have adaptive resources to face the process, while 52,5 5 received frequent support; in the 52,5 % there was a low affectation to the family health and only in 5% there was a great affectation.

Conclusion:

negative valuation in cancer repercussion, determined the predominance of the predisposing impact to family heath affectation but adaptive resources and social support modulated the level of impact resulting in low level of family health affectation.

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