Relationship between the Fear of Cancer Recurrence and Quality of Life among Patients with Gynecology Cancer: Mediating Effect of Spouse Support

Objective To explore the relationship between the fear of cancer recurrence and quality of life, and mediating effect of spouse support on the relationship between the fear of cancer recurrence and quality of life among patients with gynecology cancer. Methods A Total of 187 pathologically diagnosed gynecology cancer patients were selected and assessed by using the questionnaires of self-developed sociodemographic data questionnaire， Chinese version of the Fear of Progression Questionnaire-Short Form (FoP-Q-SF), Spouse Support Inventor, and Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Generic scale (FACT-G) between May 2017 and October 2018. Results For all the participants, the mean scores of FoP-Q-SF was 37.02±8.52, the mean score of physical health was (19.53±4.01), and the mean score of social and family was (17.42±4.61). The mean scores were (57.26±17.26), (29.40±9.56) and (27.88±8.39) for Spouse Support, subjective support and objective support, respectively. The mean score of FACT-G was (48.83±10.78). The results of correlation analysis revealed that the total score and all domain scores of FoP-Q-SF were negatively correlated with total score and domain scores of Spouse Support (all P＜0.05) and total score of FACT-G (all P＜0.01). The total score and all domain scores of Spouse Support were positively correlated with total score of FACT-G (all P＜0.01). The analysis results by Bias Corrected Bootstrap showed that Spouse Support played a partial mediation effect between the fear of cancer recurrence and the quality of life [(a×b=-0.230, 95% CI:-0.346,-0.141]. Conclusion Patients with gynecology cancer have high degree of fear of cancer recurrence. Fear of cancer recurrence can directly influence the quality of life and indirectly influence the quality of life through Spouse Support.