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Psychological well-being and social support in chronic myeloid leukemia patients receiving lifelong targeted therapies

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Abstract

Purpose

The main objective of this study was to investigate whether social support is independently associated with psychological well-being in chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) patients. Secondary objectives were to compare the psychological well-being profile of CML patients with that of their peers in general population and to examine possible age- and sex-related differences.

Patients and methods

Analysis was performed on 417 patients in treatment with lifelong molecularly targeted therapies. Mean age of patients analyzed was 56 years (range 19–87 years) and 247 (59 %) were male and 170 (41 %) were female. Social support was assessed with the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support and psychological well-being was evaluated with the short version of the Psychological General Well-Being Index. Descriptive statistics and multivariate logistic regression analyses were used.

Results

Multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that a greater social support was independently associated with lower anxiety and depression, as well as with higher positive well-being, self-control, and vitality (p < 0.001). Female patients reported statistically significant worse outcomes in all dimensions of psychological well-being. Age- and sex-adjusted comparisons with population norms revealed that depression (ES = −0.42, p < 0.001) and self-control (ES = −0.48, p < 0.001) were the two main impaired psychological dimensions.

Conclusion

This study indicates that social support is a critical factor associated with psychological well-being of CML patients treated with modern lifelong targeted therapies.

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Acknowledgments

We are deeply grateful to all patients who participated in this study. We also thank Francesca Tartaglia (from GIMEMA Data Center) for her assistance with data management.

Author contributions

Conception and design: FE, MB, MBA. Collection and assembly of data: FE, FC, GR, MB, IO, MD, FR, MBA. Statistical analysis: FC, FE. Manuscript writing: FE, FC, GR, MB, IO, MD, FR, MBA. Final approval of manuscript: FE, FC, GR, MB, IO, MD, FR, MBA.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. GIMEMA Data Center and Health Outcomes Research Unit, Italian Group for Adult Hematologic Diseases (GIMEMA), Via Benevento, 6, 00161, Rome, Italy

    Fabio Efficace & Francesco Cottone

  2. Department of Biotechnologies and Hematology, University of Rome Sapienza, Rome, Italy

    Massimo Breccia

  3. Unidade de Hematologia, Hemoterapia e Oncologia (UHHO), Serviço de Transplante de Medula Óssea (STMO), Complexo Hospital de Clínicas da Universidade Federal do Paraná, Curitiba, Brazil

    Iris Okumura & Maribel Doro

  4. Hematology Unit, IRCCS Gaslini, Genoa, Italy

    Francesca Riccardi

  5. Department of Hematology-Oncology, University of Bologna, S. Orsola-Malpighi Hospital, Bologna, Italy

    Gianantonio Rosti & Michele Baccarani

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  1. Fabio Efficace
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  2. Massimo Breccia
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Fabio Efficace.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest for this paper.

Ethical approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Efficace, F., Breccia, M., Cottone, F. et al. Psychological well-being and social support in chronic myeloid leukemia patients receiving lifelong targeted therapies. Support Care Cancer 24, 4887–4894 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-016-3344-6

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