Suicidal ideation in patients with cancer: Its prevalence and results of structural equation modelling
Objective Patients with cancer have a higher risk of suicidal ideation (SI) and suicidality than the general population. This study was designed to investigate the prevalence of SI and its association with psychosocial and sociodemographic factors and tumour entity. Methods In this observational cro...
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Published in | European journal of cancer care Vol. 31; no. 6; pp. e13650 - n/a |
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Main Authors | , , , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
Oxford
Hindawi Limited
01.11.2022
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Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
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Summary: | Objective
Patients with cancer have a higher risk of suicidal ideation (SI) and suicidality than the general population. This study was designed to investigate the prevalence of SI and its association with psychosocial and sociodemographic factors and tumour entity.
Methods
In this observational cross‐sectional study, 4372 adult patients with different cancer entities were enrolled. We assessed the outcome variables (i.e. SI, depressive and anxiety symptoms, mental and physical fatigue and sociodemographic data) using self‐report questionnaires. Data were analysed via descriptive statistics, binomial logistic regression and structural equation modelling (SEM).
Results
Among all patients, 627 (14.3%) reported SI, of whom 12.8% reported SI on several days, 0.9% on half of the days and 0.6% nearly every day. Age, anxiety, mental fatigue and the Patient Health Questionnaire‐9 items ‘feeling down, depressed and hopeless’, ‘feeling bad about oneself’ and ‘slowing or agitation’ were significant predictors of SI. SEM, including all significant predictors with a latent depressiveness–demoralisation variable, explained 30.3% variance of SI, showing a good fit.
Conclusions
Our results showed that a significant number of patients with cancer show SI. Future long‐term studies are needed to address the differential contribution of depression and demoralisation on SI in patients with cancer. |
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Bibliography: | Funding information The scientific work of Christina Sauer is financially supported by the Olympia‐Morata‐Program of the Medical Faculty of Heidelberg University. ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23 ObjectType-Undefined-3 |
ISSN: | 0961-5423 1365-2354 |
DOI: | 10.1111/ecc.13650 |