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. 2022 Jan;31(1):46-53.
doi: 10.1002/pon.5775. Epub 2021 Aug 4.

Risk perception, treatment adherence, and personality during COVID-19 pandemic: An international study on cancer patients

Simone Cheli  1   2 , Wendy W T Lam  3 , Tania Estapé  4 , Jeanette Winterling  5   6 , Ozan Bahcivan  7 , Elisabeth Andritsch  8 , Joachim Weis  9 , Isabel Centeno  10 , Samantha Serpentini  11 , Clemens Farkas  8 , Yvonne Wengström  5   6 , Luisa Fioretto  12 , Lea Baider  13 , Cherry C L Lam  3 , Gil Goldzweig  14
Affiliations

Risk perception, treatment adherence, and personality during COVID-19 pandemic: An international study on cancer patients

Simone Cheli et al. Psychooncology. 2022 Jan.

Erratum in

Abstract

Objective: To explore the role of personality traits in moderating the relation between COVID-19 risk perception and treatment adherence, and between risk perception and psychosocial distress in patients diagnosed with cancer.

Methods: An online survey (n = 1281) was conducted worldwide in seven countries (Austria, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Spain, Sweden, and Turkey). Inclusion criteria were to be 18 years of age or older, have received a cancer diagnosis, and be in treatment or follow-up. A few moderated regression models were performed with both personality traits and Hierarchical Taxonomy of Psychopathology super-spectra as moderators.

Results: Detachment, negative affectivity, psychoticism and all the super-spectra significantly moderated the relation between coronavirus risk perception and psychosocial distress, after the adjusting effect of confidence in safeguards. Only negative affectivity moderated the association between coronavirus risk perception and treatment adherence.

Conclusions: Personality traits may foster the understanding of how a patient might adjust to cancer treatment and, more generically, to highly stressful events such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Further research is needed to confirm the results in different cancer stages and types.

Keywords: AMPD; COVID-19; HiTOP; alternative model of personality disorders; cancer; hierarchical taxonomy of psychopathology; personality; psycho-oncology; traits; treatment adherence.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Moderated regression models
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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