The association between fear of cancer recurrence and quality of life among Chinese cancer survivors: main effect hypoth
- PDF / 446,090 Bytes
- 11 Pages / 595.276 x 790.866 pts Page_size
- 61 Downloads / 242 Views
The association between fear of cancer recurrence and quality of life among Chinese cancer survivors: main effect hypothesis and buffering hypothesis Dalnim Cho1 • Qian Lu2
Accepted: 21 April 2017 / Published online: 28 April 2017 Ó Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2017
Abstract Purpose The aim of the present study is to examine whether fear of cancer recurrence (FCR) is related to health-related quality of life (HRQOL) among Chinese cancer survivors, an understudied population (i.e., main effect hypothesis). Also, we investigated whether the FCR– HRQOL link is moderated by two coping strategies, avoidance and positive reappraisal (i.e., buffering hypothesis). Methods This is a cross-sectional study conducted among 238 Chinese cancer survivors in Beijing. Participants completed a set of questionnaires including FCR, coping, and HRQOL. Results FCR was related to lower physical, psychological, social, and spiritual well-beings, even when demographics, cancer-related factors, and coping were taken into account. There was only one moderation effect between FCR and avoidance coping. Surprisingly, the detrimental effect of FCR on spiritual well-being was lessened among those with high avoidance coping such that the negative association between FCR and spiritual well-being was only found
& Dalnim Cho [email protected] & Qian Lu [email protected] 1
Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Connecticut, 406 Babbidge Rd, Unit 1020, Storrs, CT 06269-1020, USA
2
Department of Psychology, University of Houston, 126 Heyne Building, Houston, TX 77204, USA
in those with low avoidance coping and not among those with high avoidance coping. Conclusions Findings largely supported the main effect hypothesis. FCR was associated with diverse domains of HRQOL among Chinese cancer survivors. The buffering hypothesis was largely not supported in this population. Rather, in some cases, the effects of FCR and coping strategies on HRQOL were independent. Thus, ways to attenuate the harmful effects of FCR on HRQOL among Chinese cancer survivors remain unresolved. It is urgent and timely that future studies focus on FCR and HRQOL in this population. Keywords Fear of cancer recurrence (FCR) Healthrelated quality of life (HRQOL) Buffering Coping Moderation Asian
Given that the number of cancer survivors continues to grow, it is important to understand the unique psychosocial needs of survivors (see [1]). Fear of cancer recurrence (FCR) defined as ‘‘fear, worry, or concern relating to the possibility that cancer will come back or progress’’ [2] is one of the most frequently reported unmet psychosocial needs [3, 4]. Much has been known regarding negative impacts of FCR on health-related quality of life (HRQOL), but there still exists research gap with regard to race/ethnicity. Specifically, many previous FCR studies were conducted in non-Hispanic White survivors and Americans (see [5] for a review). Thus, little has been known regarding its relationship with HRQOL in Asian populations in which cancer is the
Data Loading...
