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. 2017 Aug 17;15(1):161.
doi: 10.1186/s12955-017-0738-1.

Prevalence and its associated psychological variables of symptoms of depression and anxiety among ovarian cancer patients in China: a cross-sectional study

Chun Li Liu  1 , Li Liu  2 , Yi Zhang  3 , Xiao Ze Dai  2 , Hui Wu  4
Affiliations

Prevalence and its associated psychological variables of symptoms of depression and anxiety among ovarian cancer patients in China: a cross-sectional study

Chun Li Liu et al. Health Qual Life Outcomes. .

Abstract

Background: It is well known that cancer patients tend to have high levels of perceived stress and symptoms of depression and anxiety. However, there is less study on the association between perceived stress and symptoms of depression and anxiety among ovarian cancer patients in China. And the mediating effect of hope and resilience needs to be further studied. In this study, we aim to examine the prevalence of depression and anxiety symptoms, to analyze the association between perceived stress and symptoms of depression and anxiety, and to test whether hope and resilience mediate the association of perceived stress with symptoms of depression and anxiety among Chinese patients with ovarian cancer.

Method: A total of 220 questionnaires were distributed and collected from the First Affiliated Hospital of China Medical University and Shengjing Hospital of China Medical University. All participants in this study were ovarian cancer inpatients. After excluding the incomplete questionnaires, 198 questionnaires were valid for the analysis. Qualified patients were asked to response to the questionnaires including Hospital anxiety and depression scale (HADS), perceived stress scale (PSS-10), and the Herth hope scale and the resilience scale. Hierarchical regression analyses were used to test the associations among perceived stress, symptoms of depression and anxiety, and hope and resilience. Bootstrapping method was conducted to examine whether the indirect effect of hope and resilience was significant respectively.

Results: The prevalence of symptoms of depression and anxiety in ovarian cancer patients was 47.0% and 51.5% respectively. Perceived stress correlated significantly with symptoms of depression (r = 0.709, P < 0.01) and anxiety (r = 0.660, P < 0.01). Hope (a*b = 0.155, BCa 95% CI: 0.094, 0.223) partly mediated the association between perceived stress and symptoms of depression; similarly, hope (a*b = 0.129, BCa 95% CI: 0.048, 0.205) partly mediated the effect of perceived stress on symptoms of anxiety. However, resilience (a*b = 0.004, BCa 95% CI: -0.030, 0.040) did not mediate the association between perceived stress and symptoms of depression. And resilience (a*b = 0.041,BCa 95% CI: -0.013, 0.098) did not mediate the association between perceived stress and symptoms of anxiety.

Conclusions: The present study suggests that perceived stress might be one of the impact factors of symptoms of depression and anxiety, while hope might ease symptoms of depression and anxiety. In view of the role of hope, medical workers and patient caregivers should pay more attention to hope, and then to intervene perceived stress among patients with ovarian cancer.

Keywords: Hope; Ovarian cancer patients; Perceived stress; Resilience; Symptoms of anxiety; Symptoms of depression.

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Conflict of interest statement

Ethics approval and consent to participate

The study was approved by the Committee for Human Trials of China Medical University. Participants took part in the study after providing written informed consent.

Consent for publication

Not applicable.

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Theoretical model of the mediating role of hope and resilience. (a) the relationship between perceived stress and hope and resilience; (b) the relationship of hope and resilience with depressive/anxiety symptoms after controlling the independent variables; (c’) the association between perceived stress and depressive/anxiety symptoms after adding hope and resilience as mediators
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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