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Perceived stress and its associated demographic-clinical characteristics and positive expectations among Chinese cervical, kidney, and bladder cancer patients

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Abstract

Purpose

Positive expectations about personal abilities and future outcomes are important in shaping human behavior and emotion, which may influence the psychological adjustment in cancer patients. We aimed to assess two basic kinds of perceived stress in Chinese cancer patients and to investigate their associations with demographic-clinical characteristics and positive expectations.

Methods

A multi-center, cross-sectional study was conducted in consecutive cervical, kidney, and bladder cancer inpatients from three general hospitals in Liaoning province from February 2013 to August 2014. A total of 790 patients eligible for this study completed questionnaires on demographic-clinical variables, optimism, general self-efficacy, perceived global, and cancer-related stress anonymously. Hierarchical regression analyses were conducted to examine the relationships between optimism, general self-efficacy, and perceived stress, after controlling for possible covariates.

Results

Mean score of perceived global stress was 17.85 (SD 4.43). Mean score of perceived cancer-related stress was 37.15 (SD 12.66); 38.1% of the sample scored 44 and above, 20.1% scored 50 and above. Education, physical activity, cancer stage, and time since diagnosis were significantly associated with perceived stress. Optimism and general self-efficacy accounted for an additional variance in perceived global (14.9%) and cancer-related stress (16.9%), and both of them were independent and protective variables of perceived stress.

Conclusions

This study recognized cancer patients at risk for high levels of perceived stress and extended the understanding of the association between positive expectations and perceived global and cancer-related stress. Enhancing or maintaining optimism and general self-efficacy might be potential targets for future psychosocial interventions aimed at relieving perceived stress in cancer patients.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank all the staffs in the Liaoning Cancer Hospital & Institute and the First Affiliated Hospital and the Second Affiliated Hospital of China Medical University who helped to get the written informed consent about the conduct of this survey and to distribute the questionnaires to the patients.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Social Medicine, School of Public Health, China Medical University, No.77 Puhe Road, Shenyang North New Area, Shenyang, 110122, Liaoning, People’s Republic of China

    Yi-Long Yang, Meng-Yao Li, Li Liu & Lie Wang

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  1. Yi-Long Yang
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  2. Meng-Yao Li
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  3. Li Liu
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Correspondence to Lie Wang.

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The corresponding author has full control of all primary data and agrees to allow Supportive Care in Cancer to review the data if requested.

Ethical approval

The study design was approved by the Committee on Human Experimentation of China Medical University and complied with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments.

Informed consent

Patients were well-informed about the purpose and contents of the present study by investigators. Written informed consent was obtained from all inpatients included in this study.

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The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

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Yang, YL., Li, MY., Liu, L. et al. Perceived stress and its associated demographic-clinical characteristics and positive expectations among Chinese cervical, kidney, and bladder cancer patients. Support Care Cancer 26, 2303–2312 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-018-4081-9

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