Division of General Internal Medicine, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA.
Department of Psychology, Pace University, 52 Broadway, 4th Floor, New York, NY, 10004, USA.
J Cancer Surviv. 2024 Jun;18(3):900-906. doi: 10.1007/s11764-023-01340-1. Epub 2023 Jan 30.
Illness beliefs impact disease self-management; however, little is known about the impact of patients' beliefs about one illness on the management of another illness. We sought to understand how cancer beliefs impact diet self-management for cancer survivors with diabetes and whether a change in beliefs leads to a change in dietary adherence.
Seventy-eight participants with diabetes and recently diagnosed early-stage breast, prostate, lung, or colon cancer were recruited. Participants were surveyed at enrollment and after 12 months about their cancer and diabetes illness beliefs and dietary adherence. Associations between beliefs about cancer and diabetes to diet adherence at baseline and at 12 months were assessed. Change in diet adherence was examined in relation to beliefs about each illness.
The mean age was 62 years, and 23 (32%) identified as black non-Hispanic, 22 (31%) as white non-Hispanic, and 14 (19%) as Hispanic. Participants with more threatening beliefs about both cancer and diabetes at baseline had worse adherence to a diabetes diet than those with less threatening beliefs. However, at 12 months, those with more threatening cancer beliefs had better dietary adherence than participants with less threatening beliefs. Diabetes beliefs were not associated with diet adherence at 12 months.
While threatening illness beliefs may initially result in worse diet adherence, over time these beliefs may result in increased activation for better self-care and improved diet adherence.
Understanding how cancer beliefs impact diet self-management for diabetes may provide coping strategies to improve cancer survivors' management of comorbidities.
疾病信念会影响疾病的自我管理；然而，人们对患者对一种疾病的信念如何影响另一种疾病的管理知之甚少。我们试图了解癌症信念如何影响患有糖尿病的癌症幸存者的饮食自我管理，以及信念的改变是否会导致饮食依从性的改变。
招募了 78 名患有糖尿病且新近被诊断为早期乳腺癌、前列腺癌、肺癌或结肠癌的患者。在入组时和 12 个月后，对参与者进行癌症和糖尿病疾病信念以及饮食依从性的调查。评估了癌症和糖尿病信念与基线和 12 个月时饮食依从性之间的关联。还检查了饮食依从性的变化与对每种疾病的信念之间的关系。
参与者的平均年龄为 62 岁，其中 23 名（32%）为非裔西班牙人，22 名（31%）为白种非西班牙人，14 名（19%）为西班牙裔。与癌症和糖尿病的威胁性信念较强的参与者，其糖尿病饮食依从性比威胁性信念较弱的参与者差。然而，在 12 个月时，与癌症信念威胁性较小的参与者相比，癌症信念威胁性较大的参与者的饮食依从性更好。糖尿病信念与 12 个月时的饮食依从性无关。
虽然威胁性疾病信念最初可能导致饮食依从性下降，但随着时间的推移，这些信念可能会导致更好的自我保健意识增强，从而改善饮食依从性。
了解癌症信念如何影响糖尿病的饮食自我管理，可能为改善癌症幸存者对合并症的管理提供应对策略。
