PURPOSE

To identify the dynamic change and explore the longitudinal correlates of demoralization in patients after cancer diagnosis, provide comprehensive references for interventions targeting demoralization at different time points.

METHODS

This study included 127 cancer patients from a tertiary hospital in Guangzhou, China. Demoralization was assessed at three time points: 1 (T1), 3 (T2), and 6 (T3) months after cancer diagnosis. The study employed a cross-lagged panel network analysis to explore the longitudinal interactions in demoralization.

RESULTS

There were 52%, 55.4%, and 56.0% of the participants reported high demoralization in 1, 3, and 6 months after cancer diagnosis, respectively. In T1-T2, the strongest direct influence was D1 ("There is a lot of value in what I can offer others")-D21 ("I feel sad and miserable") (B = 0.32), D24 ("I feel trapped by what is happening to me") was the most influential in-prediction and out-prediction variable in this cross-lagged network. In T2-T3, the strongest direct influence was D9 ("I feel hopeless")-D13 ("I have a lot of regret about my life") (B = 0.24), and the D9 was the most influential out-prediction variable in the cross-lagged network.

CONCLUSION

Considering feeling trapped and hopelessness reported the highest prediction of other symptoms in T1-T2 and T2-T3, respectively, clinical interventions for demoralization should have specific objectives for different periods.