Open Access

Symptoms of Anxiety and Depression Among Slovenian Breast Cancer Survivors Post-Treatment During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Cross-Sectional Study

Špela MIROŠEVIČ
Špela MIROŠEVIČ
, 
Judith PRINS
Judith PRINS
, 
Nikola BEŠIĆ
Nikola BEŠIĆ
, 
Simona BORŠTNAR
Simona BORŠTNAR
, 
Andreja Cirila ŠKUFCA SMRDEL
Andreja Cirila ŠKUFCA SMRDEL
, 
Vesna HOMAR
Vesna HOMAR
, 
Marko POPOVIĆ
Marko POPOVIĆ
 and 
Zalika KLEMENC-KETIŠ
Zalika KLEMENC-KETIŠ
   | Jan 03, 2024
Slovenian Journal of Public Health's Cover Image
About this article
Previous Article
Next Article
Cite
Article Category: Original scientific article
Published Online: Jan 03, 2024
Page range: 55 - 62
Received: Oct 09, 2023
Accepted: Nov 30, 2023
DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/sjph-2024-0008
Keywords
© 2024 Špela MIROŠEVIČ et al., published by Sciendo
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Figure 1.

Distribution of depression and anxiety based on the HADS score (n=430).
Distribution of depression and anxiety based on the HADS score (n=430).

Figure 2.

Comparisons between the mean values of symptoms of anxiety and depression across age groups. The abbreviation ‘d’ represents Cohen’s d effect size, while ‘**’ denotes statistical significance with a p-value below 0.01.
Comparisons between the mean values of symptoms of anxiety and depression across age groups. The abbreviation ‘d’ represents Cohen’s d effect size, while ‘**’ denotes statistical significance with a p-value below 0.01.

Sociodemographic, disease and treatment-related variables (N=430).

Characteristic Sample of BC survivors
Age (mean±SD), range: 18-90 55.7±12.4
Marital status, n (%)
Married/partnered 332 (77.2)
Single, divorced 60 (14)
Widowed 38 (8.8)
Education (n, %)
Primary Education 28 (6.5)
Secondary Education 194 (45.1)
University, PhD 208 (48.4)
Employment (n, %)
Full-time employed 171 (39.8)
Half-time employed 86 (20.0)
Unemployed 13 (3.0)
Retired 146 (34.5)
Disabled retired 14 (3.3)
Place of residence (n, %)
Urban 161 (37.4)
Suburban 155 (36.0)
Rural 114 (26.5)
Smoking status (n, %)
Yes 41 (9.5)
No 313 (72.8)
No, but smoked in the past 76 (17.7)
Cancer stage (n, %)
0-I 90 (20.9)
II 252 (58.6)
III 88 (20.5)
Primary treatment, besides surgery (n, %)
Chemotherapy only (C) 48 (11.6)
Radiotherapy only (R) 169 (39.3)
C and R 163 (37.9)
None 50 (11.6)
Time since treatment (mean±SD),
range: 8-66 months 29.9±18.2
Hormonal therapy (n, %)
Yes 274 (63.7)
No 156 (36.3)

Final linear regression model predicting symptoms of anxiety and depression.

Variable HADS-A HADS-D
Standardized beta
Age -0.13*
Marital status (ref. married)
Single, divorceda 0.04 0.06
Widoweda 0.03
Education (ref. Primary)
Secondarya -0.2 -0.05
University, PhDa 0.05 0.03
Employment status (ref. full-time)
Half-time 0.04
Unemployeda -0.05
Disabled retireda 0.04 0.01
Place of residence (ref. urban)
Rural” 0.06 0.02
Time since treatment -0.01
Treatment type (ref. None)
Chemotherapya 0.07
Chemotherapy and radiotherapya 0.00 0.05
No. of comorbidities -0.01 0.06
Psychological support 0.03
EQ-5D - index, quality of life -0.27** -0.27**
FCRI, fear of cancer recurrence 0.29** 0.20**
RS-14, resilience -0.15** -0.36**
MPSS-total, social support -0.10* -0.14**
CaSUN-PES, unmet needs 0.16**
eISSN:
1854-2476
Language:
English
Publication timeframe:
4 times per year
Journal Subjects:
Medicine, Clinical Medicine, Hygiene and Environmental Medicine
Journal RSS Feed