Cancer‐related health worries and psychological distress among older adult, long‐term cancer survivors
Abstract
While long‐term survivors (5 years+) do not face the stressors of diagnosis and treatment, they continue to face the uncertainties that survivorship brings: recurrence, other cancers, late effects of treatment, and the potential of a shortened life expectancy. This research focuses on the cancer‐related health worries of older adult, long‐term cancer survivors, the factors that predict these worries, and their link to traditional measures of psychological distress. Specifically, a model is proposed that identifies the personal (including race and gender) and illness/treatment characteristics of survivors that are significantly associated with cancer‐related health worries and their effects on anxiety and depression. Descriptive and multivariate analyses of a random sample of 321 long‐term survivors in a major cancer center tumor registry are used to address these issues. About one‐third of survivors continue to report worries about recurrence, worries about a second cancer, and worries that symptoms they experience may be from cancer. The regression analyses show that cancer‐related health worries is a significant predictor of both depression (beta=0.36) and anxiety (beta=0.21). Race is a significant predictor; being African American is related to fewer cancer‐related health worries (beta=−0.22). Having more symptoms during treatment is also a predictor of having more cancer‐related health worries (beta=0.20). The most consistent predictor of psychosocial distress is dispositional optimism/pessimism, with more optimistic individuals reporting fewer cancer‐related health worries (beta=−0.27), lower levels of both anxiety (beta=−0.16) and depression (beta=−0.23). Overall, for many older adult, long‐term survivors, the legacy of cancer continues in terms of cancer‐related health worries. In spite of these, for most survivors, their quality of life is not dramatically compromised either physically or psychologically. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
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FCR has been found to be related to depression and anxiety.
“FCR has also been found to be related to depression and anxiety [19–21].”
From Fear of cancer recurrence in breast cancer survivors carrying a BRCA1 or 2 genetic mutation : a cross-sectional study (2024) · cites this paper as [21]
Addressing anxiety early in cancer survivorship at re-entry serves to ease acute anxiety during re-entry and to prevent chronic, debilitating, and costly anxiety.
“Addressing anxiety early in cancer survivorship—at re-entry, as presently proposed—thus serves a dual purpose: to ease acute anxiety during the often-challenging re-entry phase and to prevent the development of chronic, debilitating, and costly anxiety [3, 27, 28].”
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BackgroundResult
- Authors
- Deimling, G. T., Bowman, K. F., Sterns, S., Wagner, L. J., & Kahana, B.
- Affiliations
- Case Western Reserve University (US)
- Cleveland State University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Deimling, Gary T.
- ORCID
- Deimling, Gary T.
- Venue
- Psycho-Oncology
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2005-07-25
- Volume
- 15
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 306-320
- ISSN
- 1057-9249 (ISSN-L)
- 1099-1611
- OpenAlex
- W2022051113
- Cited by
- 496
- References
- 32
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2025: 18 · 2024: 17 · 2023: 12 · 2022: 25 · 2021: 37 · 2020: 27 · 2019: 32 · 2018: 27 · 2017: 22 · 2016: 30 · 2015: 28 · 2014: 32 · 2013: 30 · 2012: 34
- FWCI
- 7.66
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Psycho-Oncology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institutes of Health (5r03ca091577-02)
- National Cancer Institute (R03-CA-091577, R01CA078975, R01-CA-78975)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Oncology › Cancer survivorship and care
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Pediatrics, Perinatology and Child Health › Childhood Cancer Survivors' Quality of Life
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Pulmonary and Respiratory Medicine › Cancer-related cognitive impairment studies
- Keywords
- long-term cancer survivors, older adults, psychological distress, anxiety, depression, tumor recurrence, secondary malignancies, late effects of cancer treatment, dispositional optimism, pessimism, racial differences, gender differences, treatment-related symptoms, quality of life
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Aged, Attitude to Health, Breast Neoplasms, Female, Follow-Up Studies, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Neoplasms, Prostatic Neoplasms, Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic, Time Factors, Colorectal Neoplasms, Prevalence, Survivors
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