Accepted for/Published in: Interactive Journal of Medical Research
Date Submitted: Dec 28, 2022
Date Accepted: Mar 11, 2023
Impact of Social Isolation, Patient-Provider Communication, and Self-Perception on Mental Health of Cancer Patients and Survivors: A National Survey Analysis
ABSTRACT
Background:
Mental health is an important factor in the experience of cancer patients, and various factors may influence mental health outcomes in this population.
Objective:
The present study examines the relationships between social isolation, self-perception, doctor-patient communication, and mental health in a sample of cancer patients.
Methods:
We leveraged the 2022 Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS) data and used partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) to explore the proposed framework. We also checked for quadratic effects between all the paths connecting social isolation, poor communication with care providers, mental health (PHQ-4), and negative self-perception. The model was controlled for possible confounding factors such as respondents’ annual income, education level, and age. Bias-corrected and accelerated (Bac) bootstrap methods were used to estimate non-parametric confidence intervals. Significance was tested at 95% confidence (two-tailed). Additionally, we also conducted a multi-group analysis in which we created two groups. Group A with newly diagnosed cancer patients who were either undergoing cancer treatment during the time of the survey or had it treated within the last 12 months. Group B consisted of respondents who had their cancer treatment between five to ten years ago – cancer treatment before COVID.
Results:
The analysis indicated that social isolation had a quadratic effect on mental health, with higher levels of social isolation being associated with worse mental health outcomes up to a certain point. Self-perception was found to have a positive effect on mental health, with higher levels of self-perception being associated with better mental health outcomes. Additionally, doctor-patient communication had a significant indirect effect on mental health via self-perception.
Conclusions:
These findings suggest that social isolation, self-perception, and doctor-patient communication can play a role in the mental health of cancer patients, and interventions that aim to improve these factors may be an effective way to improve mental health outcomes in this population.
Citation
Request queued. Please wait while the file is being generated. It may take some time.
Copyright
© The authors. All rights reserved. This is a privileged document currently under peer-review/community review (or an accepted/rejected manuscript). Authors have provided JMIR Publications with an exclusive license to publish this preprint on it's website for review and ahead-of-print citation purposes only. While the final peer-reviewed paper may be licensed under a cc-by license on publication, at this stage authors and publisher expressively prohibit redistribution of this draft paper other than for review purposes.