Psychosocial consequences of screening-detected abdominal aortic aneurisms: a cross-sectional study

Figures & data

Table 1. Characteristics of the study participants, men with AAA and men with normal screening result.

Characteristics	AAA (n = 158)	Normal (n = 275)	p-value
Marital status (%)
Single	12.2	11	0.0781
Married/cohabitating couple	81.4	80.6
Couple living apart	1.3	5.5
Widow	5.1	2.9
Native language (%)
Swedish	92.4	93.8	0.5593
Other	7.6	6.2
Education (%)
Elementary school	51.1	46.7	0.0226
High school > 2 years	10.9	8.1
High school > 3 years	14.1	15.4
University < 3 years	10.3	11
University > 3 years	7.7	18.8
Household income in (SEK) (%)
< 14,999	13.2	6.3	0.0298
15,000–29,000	35.1	29.0
30,000–44,999	25.8	27.2
45,000–59,999	16.6	22.8
60,000 >	9.3	14.7
Smoking (%)
None/former smokers	67	71	0.3072
Current smokers	33	29
Self-rated health (%)
Excellent	7.1	15.4	0.0000
Very good	20.5	34.9
Good	42.9	38.6
Fair	25.0	8.5
Poor	4.5	2.6

Percentages and p-value.

Table 2. Part 1 and Part 2.

Scales		AAA		Normal		p-value	Adjusted^a	p-value
Part 1. COS-AAA
Scales	Range	Mean	SD	Mean	SD	Sign.	Mean diff (95%CI)	Sign.
Anxiety (7-item)	0–21	1.86	2.61	0.96	1.44	<0.001*	0.46 (0.11 ; 0.81)	0.0093*
Sense of dejection (6-item)	0–18	1.99	2.66	1.11	1.73	<0.001*	0.44 (0.05 ; 0.83)	0.0280*
Behaviour (7-item)	0–21	2.25	2.92	1.22	1.87	<0.001*	0.40 (−0.02 ; 0.82)	0.0624
Sleep (3-item)	0–9	1.59	1.84	1.29	1.63	0.0909	0.13 (−0.21 ; 0.47)	0.4507
Uncertainty about the result of the examination (3-item)	0–9	1.78	1.46
Change in body perception (8-item)	0–24	3.29	3.01	1.63	2.32	<0.001*	1.05 (0.60 ; 1.49)	<0.001*
Guilt (2-item)	0–6	0.55	0.88
Fear and powerlessness (7-item)	0–21	2.21	2.89	0.79	1.82	<0.001*	0.80 (0.43 ; 1.16)	<0.001*
Negative experiences from the examination (2-item)	0–6	0.21	0.54	0.11	0.56	0.0590	0.02 (−0.08 ; 0.12)	0.7083
Emotional reactions (3-item)	0–9	1.06	1.44	0.59	0.99	<0.001*	0.26 (0.03 ;0.50)	0.0248*
Change in lifestyle (2-item)	0–6	0.79	1.04	0.48	0.89	<0.001*	0.25 (0.06 ; 0.44)	0.0108*
Better not knowing (2-item)	0–6	0.18	0.67
Fear of rupture (4-item)	0–12	1.66	1.92
Sexuality (3-item)	0–9	1.40	2.11
Information (2-item)	0–6	0.61	1.14	0.04	0.28	<0.001*	0.61 (0.45 ; 0.76)	<0.001*
Stigmatised (4-item)	0–12	3.44	5.57	4.77	7.17	0.0324*	−1.61 (−3.02 ; −0.20)	0.0256*
Self-blame (3-item)	0–9	2.99	4.23	3.64	5.33	0.1693	−0.91 (−1.98 ; 0.15)	0.0932
Regretful (6-item)	0–18	2.46	2.16	4.21	2.32	<0.001*	−1.54 (−2.56 ; −0.52)	0.0031*
Part 2. COS-AAA
Existential values (6-item)	0–12	1.23	2.03	0.48	1.36	<0.001*	0.63 (0.31 ; 0.95)	<0.001*
Relaxed/calm (2-item)	0–4	0.52	0.93	0.32	0.69	0.0262*	0.18 (0.01 ; 0.34)	0.0332*
Social relations (3-item)	0–6	0.12	0.59	0.04	0.27	0.0861	0.09 (0.00 ; 0.17)	0.0465
Impulsivity (6-item)	0–12	0.86	1.85	0.18	0.82	<0.001*	0.62 (0.37 ; 0.87)	<0.001*
Empathy (3-item)	0–6	0.68	1.02	0.28	0.65	<0.001*	0.39 (0.23 ; 0.56)	<0.001*

COS-AAA, men with AAA and men with normal screening result.

^aAdjusted in a multivariable linear regression for; marital status, native language, education, household income, smoking, self-rated health.

*Adjustment for multiple testing with the method of Benjamini–Hochberg rejects all p-values less than 0.0375 to control the false discovery rate at 0.05.

Data availability statement

Please contact the corresponding author for data requests.