Abstract
The present study aims to investigate how dispositional mindfulness affects the mental well-being of cancer patients through the way they perceive stress. A total of 182 moderate and advanced gastrointestinal cancer patients volunteered to complete the Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS), the Chinese Perceived Stress Scale (CPSS), and the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ). Results showed that perceived stress significantly mediated the relationship between dispositional mindfulness and all dimensions of the mental well-being as captured by the GHQ (i.e. anxiety/depression, social dysfunction, and loss of confidence), and perceived stress was positively correlated with all the dimensions of mental well-being. Results of the Structural Equation Model showed that the model fit the data very well (χ2/df = 1.72，RMSEA = 0.063 (95% CI = 0.014 ~ 0.103), CFI = 0.984, TLI = 0.970, SRMR=0.041). Further analyses showed that dispositional mindfulness predicted all the dimensions of psychological well-being. Specifically, higher levels of dispositional mindfulness predicted reduced subjective perceptions of stress, which in turn predicted lower levels of anxiety/depression, social impairment, and loss of confidence. This study indicated a possible mechanism of intervention focused on improving mindfulness capability. Future work is encouraged to investigate the long-term influence of dispositional mindfulness on perceived stress and psychological well-being in cancer patients with other types of cancer.
Highlights
Gastrointestinal cancer is an intractable disease with one of the highest incidence and mortality rates in China [1,2]
Dispositional mindfulness was negatively associated with perceived stress and degree of psychological symptoms reported
The results demonstrated that our hypothesized mediating model fit the data in an adequate way, χ2/df = 1.77, root-mean-square error of approximation (RMSEA) = 0.065, Comparative fit index (CFI) = 0.982, TLI = 0.968, SRMR=0.046
Summary
Gastrointestinal cancer is an intractable disease with one of the highest incidence and mortality rates in China [1,2]. In particular, tend to report higher levels of anxiety and depression in comparison to those with other types of cancer [3], and experience a myriad of negative affect following treatment [4] – both of which may have undesirable consequences on their social functioning and quality of life [5]. Research has shown that the manifestation of mental well-being in cancer patients can differ across individuals [6]. Similar results have been obtained from studies on cancer patients; those with higher levels of dispositional mindfulness showed a lower proclivity for emotional disturbances [6], and reported less sleeping problems [9]. Mindfulness-based therapy, which takes dispositional mindfulness as the main target of improvement and development, is of great significance among different psycho-therapies proposed to improve mental health status in the field of psycho-oncology [10]
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