Correlation analysis between mental health and symptom distress in breast cancer patients

Objective To investigate the correlation between mental health and symptom distress in breast cancer patients. Methods The clinical data of 110 female breast cancer patients at Shanxi Bethune Hospital from June 2017 to March 2018 were collected. The patients were assessed for symptomatic distress with depression self-rating scale (SDS). Functional assessment of cancer therapy-breast (FACT-B) and the functional assessment of chronic illness therapy-spiritual well-being (FACIT-SP) were used to make the mental assessment. Multiple linear regression analysis was used to analyze the effect of symptom distress on the mental health of the patients. Results The scores of symptom distress, mental health, FACT-B and FACIT-SP were (19.94±5.78), (50.68±10.64), (16.85±4.75), (33.83±8.33), respectively. Multivariate analysis showed that mental health score of the patients with symptom distress > 18 scores was reduced by 5.15 points (P=0.01) compared with the patients with symptom distress≤18 scores. Compared with the patients with annual household income < 50 000 yuan, the mental health score of patients with annual household income of 50 000-79 000 yuan was increased by 9.46 points (P < 0.01), and the mental health score of patients with annual family income ≥ 80 000 yuan was increased by 5.92 points (P < 0.01); compared with the patients in phase I, the mental health score of the patients in phaseⅡwas decreased by 2.62 points (P=0.02), and the mental health score of the patients in phase Ⅲ was decreased by 4.98 points (P < 0.01). Conclusions Symptom distress is an independent risk factor for affecting mental health of breast cancer patients. Solving symptom distress of patients can improve mental health status of the patients. Key words: Breast neoplasms; Mental health; Symptom distress