Correlations of depressive symptom with perceived social support and mental adjustment among lung cancer patients

ObjectiveTo study the prevalence of depressive symptoms and its correlation with perceived social support and mental adjustment among lung cancer patients for making intervention measures to improve physical and mental health status of the patients.MethodsCenter for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale,Perceived Social Support Scale,and Mini-Mental Adjustment to Cancer Scale were administered anonymously among 169 lung cancer patients recruited at a cancer hospital between Feburay 2013 and January 2014.ResultsOf the patients,66.91% were identified with depressive symptoms.Perceived social support and positive attitude were reversely associated with depressive symptoms (β=-0.189 and β=-0.194,P<0.05).Negative emotion was positively associated with depressive symptoms.Mental adjustment played a mediating role on the relationship between perceived social support and depressive symptoms(β=0.526,P<0.05).ConclusionThe prevalence of depressive symptoms is high and the symptoms were severe among lung cancer patients,suggesting more social concerns should be supported to the patients to improve their depressive conditions.