The positive effect of social support on psychological distress among Chinese lung cancer patients: The mediating role of self-esteem.
Xu Tian, Yanfei Jin, Hui Chen and 2 others
PMID 33599393WHAT IT FOUND
Chinese lung cancer patients with more social support had less psychological distress, and patients with higher self-esteem had less distress.
The study was cross-sectional, so it does not prove that support or self-esteem reduces distress.
Key findings
01Among 441 Chinese lung cancer patients, higher social support was associated with lower psychological distress (r = -0.444), and higher self-esteem was associated with lower distress (r = -0.112).
02Self-esteem was reported as a partial mediator between social support and psychological distress, but the cross-sectional design could not establish a causal relationship.
03The median psychological distress score was 2 on a 0 to 10 thermometer, below the paper's cut-off of 4 for clinically significant distress.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The survey was cross-sectional, so it cannot show that social support or self-esteem caused lower distress. Convenience sampling was used, so the sample may not represent other lung cancer patients. All measures were self-report questionnaires, so subjective bias may affect scores. The paper did not test an intervention, so it cannot tell clinicians whether support or self-esteem interventions reduce distress. Most participants were male (315, 71.4%) and diagnosed at stage IV (330, 74.8%).
Declared interests
The authors state that they have no conflict of interests.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that increasing social support or self-esteem will reduce distress. This was a cross-sectional survey using self-report, so it shows associations at one time point, not a treatment effect.