Illness perceptions and perceived stress in patients with advanced gastrointestinal cancer

Abstract

Objective According to the Common‐Sense Model of Self‐Regulation, when faced with a health threat, we make cognitive and emotional assumptions about the illness. The aims of this study were to (a) examine the role of sociodemographic and disease‐specific factors on illness perception and perceived stress and (b) test the association between perceived stress and illness perception in participants diagnosed with gastrointestinal cancer. Methods Participants completed a battery of questionnaires including a Sociodemographic and Disease‐Specific Questionnaire, the Illness Perception Questionnaire, Brief Version (Brief‐IPQ), and the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS‐14). Descriptive statistics, Pearson correlations, analysis of variance (ANOVA), and linear regression were performed to test the hypotheses. Results Of the 627 participants, the mean age was 62 years (SD = 11); the majority were male (63.3%) and Caucasian (90.9%). Younger (F3,625 = 5.80, P < .01) and divorced or never married participants reported higher levels of perceived stress when compared with older and married participants (F4,618 = 3.52, P < .01). Younger participants (18‐74 years old) reported more negative illness perceptions than older participants (75 years and older) (F3,511 = 4.08, P < .01). A weak, positive relationship between perceived stress and illness perceptions was observed (r = 0.22, P < .01), and illness perceptions predicted 36.1% of the variance of perceived stress. Conclusions Our findings suggest that participants who negatively perceived their illness experienced greater levels of perceived stress. Interventions that aim to adjust patients' illness perceptions in order to facilitate a reduction of stress and improvement in quality of life are needed.

The impact of confinement in the psychosocial behaviour due COVID-19 among members of a Brazilian university

“…The correlations observed before and during the COVID-19 pandemic in this study corroborate with studies from other countries, which also point to a positive correlation between perceived stress and depression and a negative correlation between stress and resilience ( Kermott et al, 2019 ; Miceli et al, 2019 ). Positive coping strategies, which allow better coping with stress, enable the development of greater resilience, and consequently greater well-being for the individual.…”

Self-rated stress and experience in patients with Takotsubo syndrome: a mixed methods study

“… 24 Patients with another severe condition, that is, gastrointestinal cancer, reported lower scores than patients with TS at the time of diagnosis. 25 The decrease of PSS-14 seen in the present study was most evident during the first 6 months after the acute event and could be part of the natural recovery process. Still, more than one third scored 25 or above after 12 months.…”

Newly diagnosed patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer: A clinical description of those with moderate to severe depressive symptoms

“…Second, the level of cancer-specific stress patients with severe depressive symptoms reported was extraordinary, far exceeding the IES-R cutoff of 24 for likely diagnosis of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) [74], and so high that a search of the IES-R literature assessing patients with cancer at diagnosis (e.g., chronic lymphocytic leukemia, M = 13.6 [18]) found none comparable [75][76][77][78][79]. Likely contributing to their stress [80,81], patients with severe depressive symptoms, relative to all others, also endorsed the most negative perceptions of their illness. Appreciating patients' illness perceptions at the time of diagnosis is important, as negative illness perceptions are associated with patients coping less effectively, especially when having to make treatment choices [82,83].…”

“…Of additional concern, one third of these patients with severe depressive symptoms reported income levels below the state poverty threshold for a family of four. The financial burden imposed by cancer is significant, with patients with cancer spending an estimated $976 to $1170 more on out-of-pocket treatment-related expenses in a given year than patients without cancer [81]. Moreover, in lung cancer specifically, financial strain is associated with higher symptom burden, reduced quality of life, and earlier mortality [96,97].…”