Prevalence of mental disorders in patients with cancer compared to matched controls – secondary analysis of two nationally representative surveys

Figures & data

Table 1. Demographic and disease-related characteristics of the cancer sample, unweighted (n = 2141).

	n	%
Age, mean (SD)	57.6 (11.1)
<40 years	128	6.0
41–69 years	1681	78.5
≥70 years	332	15.5
Sex
Male	1038	48.5
Female	1103	51.5
Tumor site
Breast	442	20.6
Prostate	318	14.9
Colorectal	293	13.7
Lung	189	8.8
Female genital organs	183	8.5
Hematologic cancers	170	7.9
Stomach/esophageal	85	4.0
Kidney/urinary tract	74	3.5
Head and neck	67	3.1
Bladder	54	2.5
Pancreas	52	2.4
Malignant melanoma	34	1.6
Other	180	8.5
Disease stage
Curable/unclear	1639	76.6
Incurable	502	23.4
Time since first diagnosis, mean (SD)	25.4 (46.3)
<12 months	1108	60.9
12–24 months	224	12.3
>24 months	487	26.8
Treatment setting
Inpatient	932	43.5
Outpatient	640	29.9
Rehabilitation, inpatient	569	26.6

Figure 1. Comparison of mental disorder prevalence rates in patients with cancer (n = 2141) vs. age and gender-matched general population controls (n = 4483). Prevalence rates in controls were weighted based on propensity score-matching. Matching accounted for age, gender, and age × gender interaction. 12-month-prevalence rates were assessed. *p < .05, **p < .01, and ***p < .001.

Figure 2. Prevalence rates for any mental disorder (without nicotine dependence) in patients with cancer vs. age and gender-matched controls by demographic and disease-related subgroups. Each medical subgroup (e.g., breast cancer) is compared with accordingly matched non-cancer controls, i.e., breast cancer patients (left column) are compared with female controls of matching age (right column). Prevalence rates in controls were weighted based on propensity score-matching. Matching accounted for age, gender, and age × gender interaction. 12-month-prevalence rates were assessed. *p < .05, **p < .01, and ***p < .001.

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.