Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2021 Dec;29(12):7825-7836.
doi: 10.1007/s00520-021-06372-w. Epub 2021 Jun 26.

Anxiety profiles are associated with stress, resilience and symptom severity in outpatients receiving chemotherapy

Kate Oppegaard  1 , Carolyn S Harris  1 , Joosun Shin  1 , Steven M Paul  1 , Bruce A Cooper  1 , Jon D Levine  2   3 , Yvette P Conley  4 , Marilyn Hammer  5 , Frances Cartwright  6 , Fay Wright  7 , Laura Dunn  8 , Kord M Kober  1 , Christine Miaskowski  9   10
Affiliations

Anxiety profiles are associated with stress, resilience and symptom severity in outpatients receiving chemotherapy

Kate Oppegaard et al. Support Care Cancer. 2021 Dec.

Abstract

Purpose: The purposes of this study, in a sample of oncology patients (n = 1326) receiving chemotherapy, were to identify subgroups of patients with distinct anxiety profiles and evaluate for differences in demographic and clinical characteristics, stress and resilience measures, and severity of co-occurring symptoms (i.e., depression, sleep disturbance, attentional function, fatigue, pain).

Methods: Patients completed self-report questionnaires a total of six times over two cycles of chemotherapy. Severity of state anxiety was evaluated using the Spielberger State Anxiety Inventory and resilience was assessed using the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale. Symptoms were assessed using the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale, General Sleep Disturbance Scale, Lee Fatigue Scale, Attentional Function Index and Brief Pain Inventory.

Results: Based on the findings from the latent profile analysis that utilized the six assessments of state anxiety, 47.7% of the patients were classified as "Low," 28.3% as "Moderate," 19.5% as "High," and 4.5.% as "Very High." Anxiety levels remained relatively stable across the six timepoints. Compared to the Low class, membership in the Moderate, High, and Very High classes was associated with a number of characteristics (e.g., younger age, female gender, lower functional status, more comorbidities). Those patients with higher levels of anxiety reported higher levels of stress, lower levels of resilience, and increased severity of co-occurring symptoms.

Conclusion: Our findings suggest that a substantial number of oncology patients may warrant referral to psychological services. Clinicians need to perform systematic assessments of anxiety, stress, and common symptoms and initiate appropriate interventions to enhance resilience and coping.

Keywords: Anxiety; Cancer; Distress; Latent profile analysis; Resilience; Stress.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of interest

The authors have no relevant financial or non-financial interests to disclose.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Trajectories of state anxiety for the four latent classes.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Pitman A, et al., Depression and anxiety in patients with cancer. Bmj, 2018. 361: p. k1415.DOI: 10.1136/bmj.k1415. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Omran S and McMillan S, Symptom Severity, Anxiety, Depression, Self- Efficacy and Quality of Life in Patients with Cancer. Asian Pac J Cancer Prev, 2018. 19(2): p. 365–374.DOI: 10.22034/apjcp.2018.19.2.365. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Cordova MJ, Riba MB, and Spiegel D, Post-traumatic stress disorder and cancer. Lancet Psychiatry, 2017. 4(4): p. 330–338.DOI: 10.1016/S2215-0366(17)30014-7. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Campbell-Sills L and Stein MB, Psychometric analysis and refinement of the Connor-davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC): Validation of a 10-item measure of resilience. J Trauma Stress, 2007. 20(6): p. 1019–28.DOI: 10.1002/jts.20271. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Anisman H, Stress and your health: from vulnerability to resilience. 2015, Hoboken: Wiley-Blackwell.DOI: 10.1002/9781118850350 - DOI