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Fear, worry and sadness: an exploratory study of psychological wellbeing in men caring for their partner with ovarian cancer

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Abstract

Purpose

Ovarian cancer is the leading cause of death from female cancers in Australia with the majority of women presenting with advanced disease. The burden of caregiving is largely borne by male carers; however, little research has examined the challenges male ovarian cancer caregivers (MOCC) experience. This study aimed to explore the psychosocial wellbeing and cancer-related challenges experienced by MOCC.

Methods

A cross-sectional small-scale exploratory online survey study recruited 36 MOCC. The study questionnaire was comprised of the Generalised Anxiety Disorder Scale (GAD-7), Patient Health Questionnaire Depression Module (PHQ-9), Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy Scale (FACT-G) Family Member, Fear of Cancer Recurrence Scale, Insomnia Severity Index (ISI), Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy Fatigue Scale (FACTIT-F) and Cancer-Related Challenges Scale (CRCS).

Results

The most common challenges ever experienced were worry about the future (91%), fear of metastasis (90%) and feeling worried or uncertain (88%). The most common current challenges were fear of cancer recurrence (75%), fear of metastasis (68%) and changes in sexual relationships (64%). Depression and anxiety were significantly correlated with all psychosocial variables highlighting the relationships between elements of wellbeing for MOCC. Clinical levels of fear of cancer recurrence were reported by 89% of MOCC.

Conclusions

The challenges faced by MOCC are psychosocial in nature. There is a high correlation between anxiety and depression, and this coupled with the fear of disease recurrence indicates a greater need for screening of these issues, appropriate referral and development of support resources for this high-risk group of cancer carers.

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Data availability

Upon reasonable request.

Code availability

N/A.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the men who participated in this study for their time and the valuable information provided. The authors would also like to thank Ms. Hayley Russell for her input on manuscript drafts and support of the project.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Psychological Sciences, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia

    Janelle V. Levesque, Claudia Farnsworth & Rhys Luckey

  2. Ovarian Cancer Australia, Melbourne, VIC, Australia

    Rosetta Hart & Sue Hegarty

Authors
  1. Janelle V. Levesque
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  2. Claudia Farnsworth
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  3. Rhys Luckey
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  4. Rosetta Hart
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  5. Sue Hegarty
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Contributions

Study conception and design were performed by Janelle V. Levesque, Rosetta Hart and Sue Hegarty. Material preparation and data collection were conducted by Janelle V. Levesque and Claudia Farnsworth, with data analysis performed by Rhys Luckey. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Janelle V. Levesque and Claudia Farnsworth, and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Janelle V. Levesque.

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Ethics approval

The questionnaire and methodology for this study was approved by Monash University Human Research Ethics Committee (#18500).

Consent to participate

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

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Participants were informed of the intent to publish in the Explanatory Statement.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare no competing interests.

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Levesque, J.V., Farnsworth, C., Luckey, R. et al. Fear, worry and sadness: an exploratory study of psychological wellbeing in men caring for their partner with ovarian cancer. Support Care Cancer 30, 825–833 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-021-06488-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-021-06488-z

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