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Profiles of depressive symptoms and the association with anxiety and quality of life in breast cancer survivors: a latent profile analysis

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Abstract

Purpose

The aim of this study was to examine profiles of depressive symptoms and the association with anxiety and quality of life (QOL) in breast cancer survivors.

Methods

A cross-sectional multicenter survey involving 5 hospitals in Korea was implemented between February 2015 and January 2017. A self-report survey included the Patient Health Questionnaire-9, Short Form 36, and State and Trait Anxiety Scale. Data from 347 patients were analyzed.

Results

Latent profile analysis identified five profiles of depressive symptoms: (1) “no depression” (63.98%); (2) “mild depression with sleep problems” (16.43%); (3) “mild depression” (8.65%); (4) “moderate depression with anhedonia” (7.78%); and (5) “moderately severe depression” (3.17%). Results from Fisher’s exact test and analysis of variance (ANOVA) to examine whether sociodemographic and clinical characteristics distinguish the classes indicated that marital status, income and education as well as C-reactive protein distinguished a few classes. Multivariate analysis of covariance and analysis of covariance results indicated that both types of anxiety as well as several dimensions of QOL differed between the identified classes.

Conclusions

The current results suggest that although identified classes were characterized overall by severity of depression, a few classes also reflected pronounced individual symptom patterns, warranting tailored interventions for these symptom patterns, along with overall severity of depression.

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Funding

This research was supported by the Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Science, ICT & Future Planning (NRF-2014R1A2A2A01007794).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Pusan National University, Busan, Korea

    Eun-Jung Shim & Donghee Jeong

  2. Department of Surgery & Cancer Research Institute, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea

    Hyeong-Gon Moon & Dong-Young Noh

  3. Breast Cancer Center, National Cancer Center, Goyang, Korea

    So-Youn Jung & Eunsook Lee

  4. Department of Surgery, Soonchunhyang University Bucheon Hospital, Bucheon, Korea

    Zisun Kim

  5. Department of Surgery, Chonbuk National University Medical School, Jeonju, Korea

    Hyun Jo Youn

  6. Department of Surgery, Keimyung University School of Medicine, Daegu, Korea

    Jihyoung Cho

  7. Department of Food and Nutrition, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea

    Jung Eun Lee

  8. Research Institute of Human Ecology, Seoul National University, 1 Gwanak-ro, Gwanak-gu, Seoul, 08826, Korea

    Jung Eun Lee

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  1. Eun-Jung Shim
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  2. Donghee Jeong
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  3. Hyeong-Gon Moon
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  10. Jung Eun Lee
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Correspondence to Jung Eun Lee.

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Shim, EJ., Jeong, D., Moon, HG. et al. Profiles of depressive symptoms and the association with anxiety and quality of life in breast cancer survivors: a latent profile analysis. Qual Life Res 29, 421–429 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11136-019-02330-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11136-019-02330-6

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