Exploring correlations between positive psychological resources and symptoms of psychological distress among hematological cancer patients: a cross-sectional study

Abstract

Hematological cancer patients experience high levels of psychological distress during diagnoses and intensive treatments. The aim of the present study is to explore the effects of positive psychological resources on depressive and anxiety symptoms in hematological cancer patients. This survey was conducted in a hospital during the period from July 2013 to April 2014. A total of 300 inpatients were recruited and finally 227 of them completed the questionnaires. Questionnaires included demographic and clinical variables, the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale, the Self-Rating Anxiety Scale, the Life Orientation Scale-Revised, the General Perceived Self-Efficacy Scale, and the Resilience Scale-14. Results showed that the prevalence of depressive and anxiety symptoms was 66.1 and 45.8%, respectively. Both optimism (β = −.479, p < .001) and resilience (β = −.174, p < .05) were negatively associated with depressive symptoms, and optimism (β = −.393, p < .001) was negatively associated with anxiety symptoms. However, resilience (β = −.133, p > .05) was not significantly associated with anxiety symptoms, and self-efficacy was not significantly associated with depressive (β = −.032, p > .05) or anxiety symptoms (β = −.055, p > .05). The results suggest that hematological cancer patients who possess high levels of positive psychological resources may have fewer symptoms of psychological distress. The findings indicate that enhancing positive psychological resources can be considered in developing intervention strategies for decreasing depressive and anxiety symptoms.

Keywords:

• Anxiety symptoms
• depressive symptoms
• hematological cancer patients
• optimism
• resilience
• positive psychology

Acknowledgement

The authors thank all the staff at Shengjing Hospital who helped to obtain the informed consent and to distribute the questionnaires.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.