The Affiliated Cancer Hospital of Xiangya School of Medicine, Central South University/Hunan Cancer Hospital, Changsha, Hunan, China.
School of Nursing, University of South China, Hengyang, China.
Psychooncology. 2024 Jan;33(1):e6271. doi: 10.1002/pon.6271.
The fear of cancer recurrence (FCR) is an ongoing and common psychological problem faced by cancer patients. The objective of this study was to explore the variation trend of FCR and its influencing factors in Chinese newly diagnosed cancer patients from admission to 2 months after discharge. Demographic and tumor characteristics, as well as experiential avoidance (EA), were used as predictors.
A longitudinal design and a consecutive sampling method were used to select 266 newly diagnosed cancer patients admitted to a tertiary cancer hospital in China from July to December 2022. Measurements of FCR and EA were obtained at admission (T1), 1 month after discharge (T2), and 2 months post-discharge (T3). Generalized estimating equations were used to identify factors associated with FCR for longitudinal data analysis.
A total of 266 participants completed the follow-up. Both FCR and EA scores of patients with newly diagnosed cancer showed a significant trend of first increasing and then decreasing at baseline and follow-up (p < 0.001). The junior secondary and less education level, rural residence, advanced tumor and high EA level were risk factors for higher FCR.
Our findings suggest that the FCR levels of most newly diagnosed cancer patients in China are different at the three time points and affected by different factors, with the highest level at 1 month after discharge. These results have significant implications for future identifying populations in need of targeted intervention based on their FCR trajectories.
癌症复发恐惧（FCR）是癌症患者面临的一个持续存在且常见的心理问题。本研究旨在探讨中国新诊断癌症患者从入院到出院后 2 个月 FCR 的变化趋势及其影响因素。将人口统计学和肿瘤特征以及经验回避（EA）作为预测因素。
采用纵向设计和连续抽样方法，于 2022 年 7 月至 12 月选取中国一家三级肿瘤医院的 266 例新诊断癌症患者。在入院时（T1）、出院后 1 个月（T2）和出院后 2 个月（T3）进行 FCR 和 EA 测量。使用广义估计方程对纵向数据分析进行与 FCR 相关的因素进行识别。
共 266 名参与者完成了随访。新诊断癌症患者的 FCR 和 EA 评分均呈现出先升高后降低的显著趋势（p<0.001）。初中及以下学历、农村居住、肿瘤晚期和 EA 水平高是 FCR 较高的危险因素。
我们的研究结果表明，中国大多数新诊断癌症患者在三个时间点的 FCR 水平不同，受不同因素影响，出院后 1 个月最高。这些结果对于未来根据 FCR 轨迹确定需要针对性干预的人群具有重要意义。
