Psychosocial Response and Symptom Burden for Male Smokers with Lung Cancer

Zhi-Min Niu,Hai-Xia Yu,Qiong-Wen Zhang,Chun-Shui Liang,Min Yu,Yu-Quan Wei,Yong-Sheng Wang

doi:10.7314/apjcp.2014.15.1.309

Abstract

Cigarette smoking causes many kinds of cancer, and it is more closely related with lung cancer, rather than other cancers. Smoking is the leading cause of lung cancer and ninety percent of the smokers are male in China, but there is little published data concerning the psychological responses in the male smokers with lung cancer and its influence on the symptom burden. The aim of the study was to verify the hypothesis that male smokers with lung cancer have more positive attitude and less symptom burden, comparing to male non-smokers. A total of 194 men with cancer in West China Hospital, Sichuan, China, were assessed by self-administered questionnaire. Psychological response was measured by the Chinese version of Mini-Mental Adjustment to Cancer scale (Mini-MAC), and symptom burden was measured by the physical symptom distress scale from the Rotterdam Symptom Checklist (RSCL). We found that smokers with lung cancer got higher scores in positive attitude and a smaller symptom burden than non-smokers. Patients with education lower than high school got higher scores of positive attitude compared to college graduate patients (p=0.038). Smokers with lung cancer who knew the potential carcinogenicity of cigarette showed less negative emotions (p=0.011). The psychological response was not affected by age, clinical stage, cell type, smoking duration and amount. Male smokers with lung cancer have a more positive attitude and fewer symptoms, comparing to male non-smokers. Appropriate psychological intervention for non-smokers with lung cancer deserves more attention.

Highlights

Important aspects of a patient’s well-being may be adversely affected by the diagnosis of cancer or its treatment (Richards, 1997; Tiernan, 1998)
Smoking is the leading cause of lung cancer and ninety percent of the smokers are male in China, but there is little published data concerning the psychological responses in the male smokers with lung cancer and its influence on the symptom burden
Psychological response was measured by the Chinese version of Mini-Mental Adjustment to Cancer scale (Mini-MAC), and symptom burden was measured by the physical symptom distress scale from the Rotterdam Symptom Checklist (RSCL)

Summary

Introduction

Important aspects of a patient’s well-being may be adversely affected by the diagnosis of cancer or its treatment (Richards, 1997; Tiernan, 1998). In the field of cancer, reports of clinical trials are often limited to the impact of toxicity, treatment on survival, or physical symptoms, rather than psychological responses (Hopwood and Stephens, 2000). Psychological response, including Negative Emotion, Positive Attitude and Cognitive Avoidance may obviously be part of a reaction to the news of diagnosis and the treatments, in many patients it will persist, causing an added burden during treatment and leading to more difficulty with general management and symptom control (Hopwood and Stephens, 2000). Our study focused on the male smokers with lung cancer. Despite a large number of patients with lung cancer who receive treatment, there is little published data concerning the psychological responses in the male smokers with lung cancer and its influence on the symptom burden.

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