Anxiety, depression and quality of life in people with pancreatic cancer and their carers
Open accessAbstract
Background People with pancreatic cancer have high levels of anxiety and depression and reduced quality of life (QoL), but few studies have assessed these outcomes for patient-carer dyads. We therefore investigated these issues in an Australian population-based study. Methods Patients with pancreatic cancer (n = 136) and many of their carers (n = 84) completed the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) and Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy QoL questionnaire at a median of three months after diagnosis. Overall QoL and well-being subscales (physical, social, emotional, functional) were compared with general population norms. Intraclass correlation coefficients were used to compare anxiety, depression and QoL scores of patients and their respective carers. Results Fifteen percent of patients and 39% of carers had HADS scores indicative of anxiety and 15% of patients and 14% of carers of depression, respectively. Overall, 70% of patients and 58% of carers had QoL scores below the Queensland population average. Patients' anxiety, depression, overall QoL, social, emotional and functional wellbeing scores were significantly related to those scores in their carers. Among patients and carers, accessing psychological help was associated with elevated anxiety. Not receiving chemotherapy was associated with elevated depression among patients and younger age was associated with poorer outcomes in carers. Conclusions More carers had symptoms of anxiety than patients with pancre…
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Eight included studies were cross-sectional studies and one study was a prospective cohort design.
“Eight studies were cross-sectional studies [5, 27–33]. One study was a prospective cohort design [6].”
From Systematic review of caregiver burden, unmet needs and quality-of-life among informal caregivers of patients with pancreatic cancer (2023) · cites this paper as [32]
Data was collected through questionnaires alone in four studies, semi-structured interviews with individual participants in three studies, focus groups in two studies, and questionnaire and semi-structured interview together in one study.
“Data was collected through questionnaires alone in four studies [5, 32, 33], semi-structured interviews with individual participants in three studies [29–31], focus groups in two studies [27, 28] and questionnaire and semi-structured interview together in one study [29].”
From Systematic review of caregiver burden, unmet needs and quality-of-life among informal caregivers of patients with pancreatic cancer (2023) · cites this paper as [32]
Five included studies were conducted in the USA, three in Australia, and one in Denmark.
“Five studies (three qualitative, two quantitative) were conducted in the USA [5, 28, 29, 31, 33], three (two qualitative, one quantitative) in Australia [27, 30, 32] and one quantitative study in Denmark [6].”
From Systematic review of caregiver burden, unmet needs and quality-of-life among informal caregivers of patients with pancreatic cancer (2023) · cites this paper as [32]
Informal caregivers were predominantly spouses to patients with pancreatic cancer (98.6%, 6058/6142).
“Informal caregivers were predominantly spouses to patients with pancreatic cancer (98.6%, 6058/6142) [5, 6, 28, 33, 34].”
From Systematic review of caregiver burden, unmet needs and quality-of-life among informal caregivers of patients with pancreatic cancer (2023) · cites this paper as [34]
All four quantitative studies scored 0 points for the item assessing prospective calculation of study size.
“All four studies scored 0 points for the item assessing prospective calculation of study size [5, 6, 32, 33].”
From Systematic review of caregiver burden, unmet needs and quality-of-life among informal caregivers of patients with pancreatic cancer (2023) · cites this paper as [32]
The cross-sectional design of the three poor-quality quantitative studies meant they scored 0 points on items assessing duration of follow-up and loss of participants.
“The cross-sectional design of the three studies meant they scored 0 points on items assessing duration of follow-up and loss of participants [5, 32, 33].”
From Systematic review of caregiver burden, unmet needs and quality-of-life among informal caregivers of patients with pancreatic cancer (2023) · cites this paper as [32]
Predictors of subclinical or clinical anxiety were a history of access to professional psychological help.
“Predictors of subclinical or clinical anxiety were a history of access to professional psychological help [32].”
From Systematic review of caregiver burden, unmet needs and quality-of-life among informal caregivers of patients with pancreatic cancer (2023) · cites this paper as [32]
Predictors of psychological morbidity among informal caregivers were limited to sociodemographic and clinical characteristics including caregivers' chronic morbidity, education status, bereavement, and history of access to professional psychological help.
“Predictors of psychological morbidity among informal caregivers were limited to sociodemographic and clinical characteristics including caregivers’ chronic morbidity, education status, bereavement, and history of access to professional psychological help [6, 32].”
From Systematic review of caregiver burden, unmet needs and quality-of-life among informal caregivers of patients with pancreatic cancer (2023) · cites this paper as [32]
Four studies provided quantitative data on quality-of-life of informal caregivers of pancreatic cancer patients, and no studies provided qualitative data on quality-of-life.
“Four studies provided quantitative data on quality-of-life of informal caregivers [5, 6, 32, 33]. No studies provided qualitative data on quality-of-life of informal caregivers.”
From Systematic review of caregiver burden, unmet needs and quality-of-life among informal caregivers of patients with pancreatic cancer (2023) · cites this paper as [32]
In a separate study of 84 informal caregivers recruited soon after diagnosis, 14% had subclinical anxiety and 17% had subclinical depression, while 33% had clinical anxiety and 12% had clinical depression based on HADS.
“A separate study including 84 informal caregivers who were recruited soon after the diagnosis of pancreatic cancer found that 14% and 17% of the informal caregivers had subclinical levels of anxiety and depression respectively, while 33% and 12% had clinical levels of anxiety and depression, based on the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) [32].”
From Systematic review of caregiver burden, unmet needs and quality-of-life among informal caregivers of patients with pancreatic cancer (2023) · cites this paper as [32]
There was a correlation between anxiety or depression levels between patients and their informal caregivers.
“There was a correlation between anxiety or depression levels between patients and their informal caregivers [32].”
From Systematic review of caregiver burden, unmet needs and quality-of-life among informal caregivers of patients with pancreatic cancer (2023) · cites this paper as [32]
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References 49 · Cited by 101
- Authors
- Janda, M., Neale, R. E., Klein, K., O'Connell, D. L., Gooden, H., Goldstein, D., Merrett, N. D., Wyld, D. K., Rowlands, I. J., & Beesley, V. L.
- Affiliations
- Queensland University of Technology (AU)
- QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute (AU)
- The University of Sydney (AU)
- UNSW Sydney (AU)
- Western Sydney University (AU)
- The University of Queensland (AU)
- Corresponding author
- Beesley, Vanessa L.
- ORCID
- Venue
- Pancreatology
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2017-03
- Volume
- 17
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 321-327
- ISSN
- 1424-3903 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2579110576
- Cited by
- 101
- References
- 49
- Citations by year
- 2026: 7 · 2025: 14 · 2024: 5 · 2023: 20 · 2022: 18 · 2021: 16 · 2020: 6 · 2019: 8 · 2018: 5 · 2017: 2
- FWCI
- 2.53
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- purl.org
- Licence
- cc-by-nc-nd
- www.elsevier.com/tdm/userlicense/1.0/ (tdm)
- Locations
- Pancreatology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- QUT ePrints (Queensland University of Technology) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- The Sydney eScholarship Repository (The University of Sydney) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- National Health and Medical Research Council (442302&613654)
- NHMRC career development fellowship (1045247)
- NHMRC senior research fellowship (1060183)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Oncology › Cancer survivorship and care
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Oncology › Pancreatic and Hepatic Oncology Research
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Family Support in Illness
- Keywords
- pancreatic cancer, anxiety, depression, quality of life, caregivers, psychological distress, mental health help-seeking, chemotherapy, caregiver well-being, emotional well-being
- MeSH terms
- Aged, Anxiety, Australia, Depression, Female, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Pancreatic Neoplasms, Quality of Life, Caregivers
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