Abstract
Marital adjustment plays a key role in the physical and psychosocial wellbeing. We conducted a cross-sectional study to evaluate marital adjustment and its association with psychological distress, suicidal ideation, sleep problems, and quality of life in patients with cancer. We collected demographic and clinical information using a structured survey. We assessed marital adjustment, quality of life, psychological distress profile, and sleep problems of participants using validated instruments: the Locke and Wallace Marital Adjustment Test (LWMAT), the Short-Form Health Survey-12, the Beck’s Depression Inventory (BDI), the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI), and the Insomnia Severity Index (ISI). Suicidal ideation was assessed with item nine of the BDI. Of the 130 patients (52.3% females, mean age 57.9 ± 12.4 years) enrolled, 20 (15%) were classified as experiencing poor marital adjustment. Moderate to severe depression, anxiety, and insomnia were found in 25.4%, 34.6%, and 24.7% of participants, respectively. Positive suicidal ideation was documented in 13.8% of participants. We found a significant association between poor marital adjustment and depression, anxiety, suicidal ideation, and poor sleep. Our study confirms the relevance of marital adjustment in relation to the psychological wellbeing of patients with cancer. Depression, anxiety, and poor sleep were found to be significantly associated with poor marital adjustment.
Highlights
Substantial attention has been paid to the relationship between marital status and psychological functioning in patients with cancer [35], to our knowledge, this is the first study that evaluates the different symptoms of psychological distress, such as anxiety, depression, sleep problems, and suicidal ideation as well as health-related quality of life in a sample of patients with cancer in relation to their degree of marital adjustment
Marital discord was found to be positively correlated with suicidal ideation and attempts [52]; our results found a significantly higher prevalence of suicidal ideation among patients reporting poor marital adjustment
Substantial attention has been paid to the relationship between marital status and psychological functioning in patients with cancer [35], to our knowledge, this is the first study that evaluates different symptoms of psychological distress, such as anxiety, depression, and suicidal ideation as well as health-related quality of life in cancer patients in relation to their degree of marital adjustment
Summary
Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Marital adjustment is defined as a process whose outcome is determined by the extent of troublesome marital differences, interspousal tensions, personal anxiety, marital satisfaction, and dyadic cohesion [1]. Marital adjustment plays a key role in the physical and psychosocial wellbeing of partners, with higher levels being linked to better health outcomes [2,3]. Poor adjustment does lead to poor health outcomes and to increased odds of mortality [4]. Poor marital adjustment has been linked to increased morbidity and mortality across various chronic disease conditions, including cancer [5,6]
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