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Hope-related goal cognitions and daily experiences of fatigue, pain, and functional concern among lung cancer patients

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Abstract

Purpose

Cross-sectional research suggests that thinking about multiple ways to reach goals (hope pathways) and the belief that one can reach them (hope agency) may be adaptive for lung cancer patients. We examined the between-person and within-person associations among aspects of hope agency and pathways thinking, daily fatigue, pain, and functional concerns (e.g., sense of independence, usefulness) among lung cancer patients during active treatment.

Methods

Data from a daily diary study were used to examine relations among hope agency, hope pathways, fatigue, pain, and functional concern in 50 patients with advanced lung cancer. Participants were accrued from one outpatient cancer center and completed the study between 2014 and 2015.

Results

Adjusting for covariates and the previous day’s symptoms or concern, patients who engaged in higher pathways thinking reported lower daily symptoms, whereas those who engaged in higher agency thinking reported less functional concern. Within-person increases in pathways thinking were associated with less daily fatigue, pain, and functional concern; within-person increases in agency thinking were associated with less daily fatigue and pain. Models examining symptoms and concerns as predictors of hope suggested within-person increases in functional concern and fatigue and pain were related to lower agency and pathways thinking the same day. Patients with higher fatigue and pain did not report lower agency or pathways thinking, but patients with more functional concern did.

Conclusions

Increases in hope pathways thinking may be associated with lower symptoms and better functioning in lung cancer patients. This suggests that it is important to determine the efficacy of interventions that emphasize the pathways the component of hope.

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Funding

Laurie Steffen was supported by R25CA122061 (PI: Nancy Avis, Ph.D).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Social Sciences & Health Policy – PHS, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Medical Center Boulevard, Winston-Salem, NC, 27157, USA

    Laurie E. Steffen

  2. Department of Psychology, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA

    Jennifer S. Cheavens

  3. Department of Psychology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, USA

    Kevin E. Vowles & Bruce W. Smith

  4. Department of Internal Medicine, Section on Gerontology and Geriatric Medicine, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC, USA

    Jennifer Gabbard

  5. School of Medicine, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, USA

    Huynh Nguyen

  6. Department of Radiation Oncology, University of Kansas School of Medicine, Kansas City, Kansas, USA

    Gregory N. Gan

  7. Department of Hematology/Oncology, Fox Chase Cancer Center, Philadelphia, PA, USA

    Martin J. Edelman

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  1. Laurie E. Steffen
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  2. Jennifer S. Cheavens
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Correspondence to Laurie E. Steffen.

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Conflict of interest

The authors declare they have no competing interests. Dr. Vowles discloses grant funding from Pfizer Pharmaceuticals, outside the submitted work.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. This article does not contain any studies with animals performed by any of the authors.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

Dr. Steffen has full control of the primary data and agrees to allow the journal to review upon request.

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Steffen, L.E., Cheavens, J.S., Vowles, K.E. et al. Hope-related goal cognitions and daily experiences of fatigue, pain, and functional concern among lung cancer patients. Support Care Cancer 28, 827–835 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-019-04878-y

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