Patterns of Psychological Distress of Chinese Elderly Cancer Patients: A Latent Profile Analysis.
Danyu Li, Zhuting Zheng, Qingmei Huang and 4 others
PMID 40211097WHAT IT FOUND
In 357 older Chinese cancer patients, three distress groups emerged: low 34.7%, moderate 35.6%, high 29.7%.
Female sex, religious belief, and being under treatment were linked to moderate or high distress, and high distress was associated with worse emotional quality of life.
Key findings
01Among 357 older Chinese cancer patients, three psychological distress profiles were identified: low distress (124, 34.7%), moderate distress (127, 35.6%), and high distress (106, 29.7%).
02Compared with low psychological distress, being female, having religious belief, and being under treatment were associated with higher odds of moderate or high psychological distress.
03Emotional quality of life scores were highest in the low distress profile (69.46 ± 10.40), lower in moderate distress (48.62 ± 6.04), and lowest in high distress (34.79 ± 5.10).
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The sample came from cancer clinics of two tertiary teaching hospitals in Shanghai and included only patients aged 60 or older, so findings may not apply to younger patients or other regions. Quality of life was assessed with only four emotional function items from the EORTC QLQ-C30, so other quality-of-life domains and overall quality of life were not examined. Some known factors linked to psychological health in cancer, including cancer stage, social support, recurrence frequency, treatment history, and tumour size, were not collected. The design was cross-sectional, so it cannot show that any characteristic causes higher distress or that distress causes lower quality of life. No treatment or care strategy was tested, so the paper cannot show that identifying these profiles improves patient outcomes.
Declared interests
The authors declared no conflicts of interest. Funding was from the National Natural Science Foundation of China.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read these profiles as a treatment effect or as proof that female sex, religion, or cancer treatment causes distress. This was a cross-sectional survey of older cancer patients in two Shanghai hospitals, so it can show associations but not cause or effect.