Abstract
Background: Fear of cancer recurrence (FCR) is common among cancer patients and of high clinical relevance. This study explores the prevalence and correlates of FCR in Chinese newly diagnosed cancer population.
Methods: This is a multicentre, cross-sectional study that includes 996 patients with mixed cancer diagnosis. All recently diagnosed patients completed a questionnaire consisting of the following: Fear of Progression Questionnaire-Short Form (FoP-Q-SF), General Anxiety Disorder Questionnaire (GAD-7), and Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9). Univariate analyses, multivariate logistic regression analyses, and structural equation modeling (SEM) was performed to examine the association between tested variables and FCR.
Results: Of the 996 patients, 643 (64.6%) reported high FCR (scored ≥ 34 in the FoP-Q-SF). Chemotherapy (OR = 1.941), Childhood severe illness experience (OR = 2.802), depressive (OR = 1.153), and anxiety (OR = 1.249) symptoms were positively associated with high FCR, while higher monthly income (OR = 0.592) was negatively associated with high FCR. SEM indicated that emotional disturbances (anxiety and depression) directly influenced FCR, while emotional disturbances partly mediated the association between personal monthly income and FCR.
Conclusion: High FCR is a frequently reported problem among newly diagnosed cancer patients. Various factors increased the likelihood of the development of FCR. Flexible psychological interventions are needed for patients with high FCR.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 1287 |
| Number of pages | 9 |
| Journal | Frontiers in Psychology |
| Volume | 11 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 9 Jun 2020 |
Keywords
- Cancer
- Chinese
- Fear of recurrence
- Newly diagnosed
- Structural equation modeling
Access to Document
- Luo_2020_FP_Highfear_CC
Copyright © 2020 Luo, Li, Yang, Humphris, Zeng, Zhang, Garg, Zhang and Sun. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.