Milosev, Vladimir and Miloseva, Lence and Vukosavljevic-Gvozden, Tanja (2014) Hope and optimism as predictors of anxiety and depression in a group of patients with head and neck cancer. In: Fourth national congress of general practice with international participation „From Science to Human”, 20-23 Nov 2014, Plovdiv, Bulgaria. (Unpublished)
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Abstract
Over this past two decades, the construct of hope and optimism has started to receive increasing attention in psychoncology. Studies have shown that hope is associated with positive features of coping with cancer, increased well being, and lower anxiety and depression symptoms (Snyder, 2002; Felder, 2004).
Anxiety and depression have been identified as a common psychological distress faced by the majority of cancer patients.
Goal:
The research was guided by one major research issue which explored possible role of hope and optimism on anxiety and depression among group of patients with diagnosed head and neck cancer.
Materials and Methods:
The data were obtained at Dept. of Maxillofacial surgery, Clinical Hospital, Stip. The sample consisted of sixty patients diagnosed with head and neck cancer. The Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), Hope scale (HS) and the Positive Scale-Short Form (subscale Personal Optimism) surveys were administered during their regular follow-up controls in Clinical hospital in Stip,R. Macedonia.
Results:
We hypothesized that higher levels of hope and optimism would be related to lower level of anxiety and depression.
Hope was negatively correlated with depression (r = -.68, p < .001) and anxiety (r = -.48, p < .05). Similar results was found between optimism and the latter maladaptive outcomes (depression: r = -.51, p < .001; anxiety: r = -.38, p < .05). In accordance with findings from similar researches, regression analyses indentified that both hope and optimism were significant predictors of depression. Hope and optimism had equal association with depression (hope: β = -.50; t= -3.90 versus optimism: β = -.48 ;t= -3.70).
As we expected, hope and optimism together were significantly predictive of anxiety, whereas neither hope nor optimism alone was significant individual predictors of anxiety.
Conclusions:
Hope and optimism both negatively correlated with patients’ level of anxiety and depression. Besides theoretical implications, this study brings forward relevant findings related to developing specific clinical psychological care in the field of oncology, such as psychotherapy interventions, that to date has not been researched specifically in the field of oncology. The results of this study will help guide the direction of future prospective studies, will contribute significantly to increasing patients quality of life as well enabling health care facilities and experts to provide all cancer patients a more holistic cancer care.
Key words: hope; optimism; anxiety; depression; head and neck; cancer.
| Item Type: | Conference or Workshop Item (Paper) |
|---|---|
| Subjects: | Medical and Health Sciences > Clinical medicine |
| Divisions: | Faculty of Medical Science |
| Depositing User: | Lence Miloseva |
| Date Deposited: | 25 Dec 2014 11:42 |
| Last Modified: | 25 Dec 2014 11:42 |
| URI: | https://eprints.ugd.edu.mk/id/eprint/11818 |
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