CN39 - Depression and its impact on quality of life in lung cancer patients with comorbid diabetes type 2

Background

Lung cancer and diabetes type 2 are two globally prevalent diseases. The purpose of this study was to assess depression and its impact on the quality of life in lung cancer patients with coexistence diabetes type 2.

Methods

A cross-sectional study was conducted in a large oncology hospital in a major Greek city. The sample was convenience and consisted of 43 lung cancer patients with diabetes type 2 who were undergoing chemotherapy cycle 3. Quality of life was measured by the EORTC QLQ-C 30, EORTC QLQ–LC 13 questionnaire, and depression was measured by the CES-Depression Scale. Information on demographic and clinical characteristics was collected by another questionnaire. Descriptive statistics were used for demographic characteristics. For data that were not normally distributed, nonparametric tests were applied.

Results

The majority of patients were men (n = 32, 72.7%, mean age was 67.53 ± 7.99 years) They had non-small cell lung cancer (n = 33, 75%). The mean score on the CES-D scale was 25.37 ± 37. The 53.5 % of the patients had a CES-D score higher than the cut-off score of 23 for Greek population indicating that more than the half of the patients in the present sample reported experiencing symptoms of depression. The analysis with Spearman Correlation between the CES-D and the EORTC QLQ-C30 showed that the CES-D score was negatively correlated with physical functioning (r_s = -.52, p < .01), emotional functioning (r_s = -.63, p < .01), and social functioning (r_s = -.31, p < .05). It was positively correlated with nausea and vomiting (r_s = .61, p < .01), pain (r_s = .59, p < .01), dyspnoea (r_s=.52, p < .01), and financial difficulties (r_s= .40, p < .01). The analysis with the EORTC QLQ–LC13 showed that the CES-D was positively correlated with dyspnoea (r_s = .57, p < .01), coughing (r_s = .48, p < .01), haemoptysis (r_s =.49, p < .01) and dysphagia (r_s =.38, p < .05). However, when these variables were added as predictors of CES-D into a regression model (R² = 0,80, p < 0,01) to assess their predictive power, none of them significantly predicted the depression score.

Conclusions

Considering the above results, we concluded that depression was associated with quality of life in lung cancer patients with diabetes type 2.

Clinical trial identification

Editorial acknowledgement

Legal entity responsible for the study

The authors.

Funding

Has not received any funding.

Disclosure

All authors have declared no conflicts of interest.