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. 2022 Apr 15;19(8):4825.
doi: 10.3390/ijerph19084825.

Social Support Mediates the Relationship between Body Image Distress and Depressive Symptoms in Prostate Cancer Patients

Cristiano Scandurra  1 , Benedetta Muzii  2 , Roberto La Rocca  1 , Francesco Di Bello  1 , Mario Bottone  1 , Gianluigi Califano  1 , Nicola Longo  1 , Nelson Mauro Maldonato  1 , Francesco Mangiapia  1
Affiliations

Social Support Mediates the Relationship between Body Image Distress and Depressive Symptoms in Prostate Cancer Patients

Cristiano Scandurra et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. .

Abstract

Treatments for prostate cancer (PCa), the second most common cancer in men, may affect the body image (BI) of patients, increasing the risk of negative mental health outcomes. However, an enabling social support network may be a protective factor against the effects of BI distress on health. Therefore, the present study examined the mediating role of social support in the relationship between BI distress and depressive symptoms. Data were retrospectively collected from 197 PCa patients aged from 48 to 79 years (M = 67.19; SD = 6.83). The statistical package for the social sciences with PROCESS Macro was used to assess the direct and mediating effects with bias-corrected bootstrapping (10,000 samples). Results showed that BI distress was positively associated with depressive symptoms and that social support partially mediated this relationship. Moreover, among the different sources of social support, only friend support significantly mediated the association between BI distress and depressive symptoms. This study sheds light on the crucial role of social support as a dimension that can promote health in PCa patients.

Keywords: body image; depressive symptoms; mediation; prostate cancer; social support.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
The hypothesized mediation model.
Figure 2
Figure 2
The mediated effect of social support on the relationship between body image distress and depressive symptoms. *** p < 0.001. All values are beta coefficients.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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