Coping among older-adult, long-term cancer survivors

• Published in: Psycho-oncology (Chichester, England) England), 2006-02, Vol.15 (2), p.143-159
• Main Authors: Deimling, Gary T., Wagner, Louis J., Bowman, Karen F., Sterns, Samantha, Kercher, Kyle, Kahana, Boaz
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adaptation, Psychological; Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Anxiety; Anxiety - etiology; Anxiety - psychology; Attitude to Health; Cancer; cancer worries; Depression; Depression - etiology; Depression - psychology; Disease-Free Survival; distress; Fear; fears of recurrence; Female; Follow-Up Studies; Humans; Long term survivors; Male; Middle Aged; Neoplasm Recurrence, Local - psychology; Neoplasms - mortality; Neoplasms - psychology; Older people; Psychological Distress; Psychology; Racial differences; Recurrence; Surveys and Questionnaires; Survivors - psychology
• ISSN: 1057-9249; 1099-1611
• DOI: 10.1002/pon.931

This research focuses on the coping behavior of older adult, long‐term cancer survivors. Specifically, it identifies the personal (including race and gender) and illness/treatment characteristics of survivors that are significantly associated with the use of specific coping styles: planning, acceptance, venting, denial and seeking social support. It also examines the mediating role that these forms of coping play in terms of psychological distress: anxiety, depression and cancer‐related worries. Multivariate analysis of data from a random sample of 321 long‐term survivors in a major cancer center tumor registry is used to address the above issues. The most prominent forms of coping used by long‐term survivors were planning and acceptance; least used were venting and denial. Increased age was associated with lower use of all forms of coping, but cancer type was not. Denial as a form of coping was associated with higher anxiety, depression and cancer‐related worries. While race was not found to be a significant predictor of coping style, it was a significant predictor of three dimensions of psychological distress, anxiety, depression and cancer‐related worries, with African Americans exhibiting lower levels of distress than Whites. The relevance of these findings for health and social service practitioners is discussed. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.