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The prevalence of anxiety and depression and its association with coping strategies, supportive care needs, and social support among women with breast cancer

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Abstract

Purpose

Diagnosis of breast cancer and its treatment dramatically affects women’s psychological health. This study investigated the prevalence of depression and anxiety and their related factor in breast cancer women.

Methods

We conducted a cross-sectional study with a sample of 120 women with breast cancer in Zahedan, Iran, 2020. Data were collected using instruments included: Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), Supportive Care Needs Survey (SCNS-SF34), Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS), The adjustment to illness measurement inventory for Iranian women with breast cancer (AIMI-IBC). We analyzed the data using the ANOVA, independent sample t-test, Kruskal Wallis, Mann‐Whitney U test, Pearson’s and Spearman’s correlation coefficients.

Results

The prevalence of depression and anxiety in women with breast cancer was 66.6% and 60%, respectively. A significant positive correlation was found between anxiety and depression and unmet psychological needs, care/support needs, and emotional turmoil coping strategy, while reasonable efforts and avoidance coping strategies and adjusting to disease were negatively correlated with anxiety and depression. Also, linear regression results indicated unmet psychological needs, emotional turmoil coping strategy, and a high level of depression predicted a high anxiety level. A lower level of depression was indicated by reasonable efforts strategy and less level of anxiety.

Conclusions

Women with breast cancer reported a high level of depression and anxiety in Zahedan, and clinicians should pay more attention to these patients’ psychological distress. Resolving the unmet need of patients, increasing social support, and using the right coping strategy have an essential role in breast cancer women’s psychological distress control.

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Data availability

The datasets used and analyzed during this study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Code availability

Not applicable.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank all patients that participated in this study. We also appreciated all the health care workers in the clinical oncology department of Khatam-Al-Anbia hospital and the Radiotherapy Department of Ali-Ebne-Abitaleb hospital.

Funding

This work is part of the corresponding author master’s thesis and was supported by the Zahedan University of Medical Sciences.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Health Promotion Research Center, Zahedan University of Medical Sciences, Zahedan, Iran

    Hassan Okati-Aliabad, Alireza Ansari-Moghadam, Mahdi Mohammadi & Fariba Shahraki-Sanavi

  2. School of Health, Zahedan University of Medical Sciences, Zahedan, Iran

    Shiva Kargar

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  1. Hassan Okati-Aliabad
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  2. Alireza Ansari-Moghadam
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  3. Mahdi Mohammadi
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  4. Shiva Kargar
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  5. Fariba Shahraki-Sanavi
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Contributions

HOA, SK, and AAM were involved in the study design.

SK and FSS were involved in the data collection.

MM and SK were involved in the data analysis.

HOA and Sk were involved in the manuscript preparation.

All authors have read and verified the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Shiva Kargar.

Ethics declarations

Ethical considerations and consent to participate.

The ethics committee of Zahedan University of Medical Sciences approved this study (IR.ZAUMS.REC.1399.010). We explained the purpose of the study to all patients and obtained written informed consent.

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Not applicable.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare no competing interests.

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Okati-Aliabad, H., Ansari-Moghadam, A., Mohammadi, M. et al. The prevalence of anxiety and depression and its association with coping strategies, supportive care needs, and social support among women with breast cancer. Support Care Cancer 30, 703–710 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-021-06477-2

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