526MO - The mitigation impact of self-management strategy for health on anxiety and depression in patients with fear of recurrence

Background

Despite recent advances in cancer treatments, it is well-known that fear of cancer recurrence (FCR) is a common experience among cancer patients, often leading to high levels of anxiety and depression. Our study was carried out to achieve two goals: to establish a relationship between FCR and anxiety and depression in patients with colorectal cancer (CRC) and to assess how effective it is to implement strategic intervention to reduce their psychological burden.

Methods

A total of 985 CRC baseline cohorts from Seoul National University Hospital registered between 2014 and 2023 were investigated in this study. The major findings were drawn by comparing patients who felt high levels of FCR and the low levels of counterparts. The Cancer Worry Scale (CWS) and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) were employed to determine the severity of FCR and to evaluate their anxiety and depression, respectively. Using multiple stepwise logistic regression models, we investigated significant risk factors and prospective variables associated with anxiety and depression among CRC patients, according to their levels of FCR.

Results

Using a CWS cut-off for CRC Patients, we divided the entire subjects into fearful (N = 635, 70.6%) and non-fearful groups (N = 264, 29.4%). Fear of cancer recurrence was highly associated with CRC patients’ anxiety and depression. This was more pronounced in anxiety (odds ratio[OR], 2.84; confidence interval[CI], 2.06 to 3.92) than in depression (OR, 1.87; CI, 1.39 to 2.52). Most of variables were excluded during stepwise model fitting. Low monthly income and high fasting blood sugar were major risk factors for both outcomes. Sharing experience group (OR, 0.59; CI, 0.41 to 0.85) in anxiety and coping activity group (OR, 0.43; CI, 0.30 to 0.61) in depression showed a reduced amount of distress.

Conclusions

Our findings demonstrate cancer patients’ fear that they can have cancer again substantially affects their emotional distress. It is important to draw up appropriate measures to examine cancer patients’ psychological status and this might help them relieve and improve their burdens.

Clinical trial identification

Not applicable

Editorial acknowledgement

Not applicable

Legal entity responsible for the study

The authors.

Funding

This research was supported by a grant of ‘Korea Government Grant Program for Education and Research in Medical AI’ through the Korea Health Industry Development Institute(KHIDI), funded by the Korea government(MOE, MOHW) and also funded by the National Research Foundation (NRF) in South Korea (2022R1C1C1009902).

Disclosure

All authors have declared no conflicts of interest.