Photo Credit: Ridofranz
The following is a summary of “Relationship between uncertainty and fear of disease progression among newly diagnosed cancer patients: the mediating role of intolerance of uncertainty,” published in the October 2024 issue of Psychiatry by Shen et al.
Researchers conducted a retrospective study to analyze the relationships among uncertainty in illness (UI), intolerance of uncertainty (IU), and fear of disease progression (FoP) in newly diagnosed patients with cancer.
A total of 202 newly diagnosed patients with cancer (male: 105, 51.98%; mean age: 47.45 ± 14.8 years; lung cancer (LC): 49, 24.26%) were recruited via convenience sampling. They completed a questionnaire assessing demographics, Fear of Progression, UI, and IU.
The results showed that 87.62% of newly diagnosed patients with cancer experienced FoP. The prevalences of high, medium, and low levels of UI were 15.84%, 73.27%, and 10.89%, respectively. The mean IU Scale score was 41.19 ± 10.11. FoP was positively correlated with UI (r = 0.656, P < 0.001) and IU (r = 0.711, P < 0.001), and IU was positively correlated with UI (r = 0.634, P < 0.001). IU partially mediated the effect of UI on FoP, accounting for 47.60% of the total effect.
The study concluded that newly diagnosed patients with cancer had a high prevalence of FoP. They found that reducing IU considering UI could help mitigate FoP.
Source: bmcpsychiatry.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12888-024-06201-4
