Health Behaviour Research Centre, Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, University College London, 1-19 Torrington Place, London, WC1E 6BT, UK.
Support Care Cancer. 2012 Nov;20(11):2933-9. doi: 10.1007/s00520-012-1423-x. Epub 2012 Mar 9.
Trait emotional intelligence (trait EI) has been linked with psychological outcomes in a variety of settings; however, it has received little attention in the healthcare field. We investigated the relationship between trait EI and worry at different stages of the diagnostic cancer pathway.
We recruited 64 individuals attending an outpatient urology cancer investigation. Patients completed the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire--Short Form and a single-item measure of arousal/pleasantness. Worry was assessed retrospectively for each stage of the pathway and concurrently for the stage of 'awaiting the specialist'.
Trait EI was negatively associated with worry in the early stages of the diagnostic pathway ('deciding to see' and 'awaiting the general practitioner (GP)'; ps < 0.05) and was negatively linked to patients' worry while 'seeing the GP' (p = 0.051) after controlling for anxiety, depression, arousal and pleasantness.
Low trait EI is predictive of increased worry levels in the early stages of the diagnostic cancer pathway. Individual differences in trait EI should be considered when communicating medical results to patients and in the development of interventions designed to reduce worry levels in patients entering the diagnostic cancer pathway.
特质情绪智力（trait EI）与各种环境中的心理结果有关；然而，它在医疗保健领域受到的关注甚少。我们研究了特质 EI 与诊断癌症途径不同阶段的担忧之间的关系。
我们招募了 64 名参加泌尿外科癌症检查的门诊患者。患者完成了医院焦虑和抑郁量表、特质情绪智力问卷-短表和一个关于唤醒/愉悦度的单项测量。对途径的每个阶段进行回顾性评估，并对“等待专家”阶段进行同期评估。
特质 EI 与诊断途径的早期阶段的担忧呈负相关（“决定就诊”和“等待全科医生（GP）”；p < 0.05），并且在控制焦虑、抑郁、唤醒和愉悦度后，与患者在“看 GP”时的担忧呈负相关（p = 0.051）。
低特质 EI 可预测诊断癌症途径早期阶段的担忧水平升高。在向患者传达医疗结果以及制定旨在降低进入诊断癌症途径的患者担忧水平的干预措施时，应考虑特质 EI 的个体差异。
