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Couples coping with advanced prostate cancer: an explorative study on decision-making preferences, self-efficacy and fear of progression

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Abstract

Purpose

To date, there is a lack of understanding of the treatment/disease-related health behaviors of patients with advanced prostate cancer (PCa) and their spouses. The purpose of this study was to explore the characteristics of treatment decision-making (DM) preferences, general self-efficacy (SE) and fear of progression (FoP) among couples coping with advanced PCa.

Methods

In this explorative study, 96 patients with advanced PCa and their spouses answered the multiple choice version of the Control Preferences Scale (CPS, regarding DM), General Self-Efficacy Short Scale (ASKU, regarding SE), and short form of the Fear of Progression Questionnaire (FoP-Q-SF, regarding FoP). Corresponding questionnaires were employed for patients’ spouses were evaluated, and correlations were subsequently drawn.

Results

More than half of the patients (61%) and spouses (62%) preferred active DM. Collaborative DM was preferred by 25% of patients and 32% of spouses, and 14% of patients and 5% of spouses preferred passive DM. FoP was significantly higher among spouses than among patients (p < 0.001). The difference in SE was not significant between patients and spouses (p = 0.064). FoP and SE negatively correlated among patients (r = − 0.42; p < 0.001) and among spouses (r = − 0.46; p < 0.001). DM preference did not correlate with SE and FoP.

Conclusions

High FoP and low general SE are related among both patients with advanced PCa and their spouses. FoP seems to be higher among female spouses than among patients. Couples seem to be largely in agreement when it comes to playing an active role in treatment DM.

Trial registration

www.germanctr.de, number DRKS 00013045.

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Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author, Andreas Ihrig.

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Funding

This study received no financial support. The authors have no financial interests to disclose.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Psycho-Oncology, Department of General Internal Medicine and Psychosomatics, University Hospital of Heidelberg, INF 410, 69120, Heidelberg, Germany

    Till Johannes Bugaj, Imad Maatouk, Tobias Hanslmeier, Charlotte Flock, Hans-Christoph Friederich & Andreas Ihrig

  2. Section of Psychosomatic Medicine, Psychotherapy and Psycho-Oncology, Department of Internal Medicine II, Julius-Maximilian University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany

    Imad Maatouk

  3. Department of Medical Oncology, National Centre for Tumour Diseases (NCT), University Hospital of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany

    Stefanie Zschäbitz

  4. Department of Urology, Philipps-University of Marburg, Marburg, Germany

    Johannes Huber

Authors
  1. Till Johannes Bugaj
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  2. Imad Maatouk
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  3. Tobias Hanslmeier
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  4. Stefanie Zschäbitz
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  5. Johannes Huber
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  6. Charlotte Flock
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  7. Hans-Christoph Friederich
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  8. Andreas Ihrig
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Contributions

TJB: supervision, manuscript writing, editing. IM: conceptualization, methodology, manuscript writing. TH: conceptualization, data curation, original draft preparation. SZ: conceptualization, methodology, manuscript writing. JH: conceptualization, manuscript writing. CF: manuscript writing. H-CF: supervision, manuscript reviewing. AI: conceptualization, methodology, manuscript writing.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Andreas Ihrig.

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Ethical approval

This study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the Medical Faculty of Heidelberg (vote S-511/2017).

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Bugaj, T.J., Maatouk, I., Hanslmeier, T. et al. Couples coping with advanced prostate cancer: an explorative study on decision-making preferences, self-efficacy and fear of progression. World J Urol 41, 1041–1046 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00345-023-04325-y

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