Social Support Mediates the Relationship between Body Image Distress and Depressive Symptoms in Prostate Cancer Patients

Treatments for prostate cancer (PCa), the second most common cancer in men, may affect the body image (BI) of patients, increasing the risk of negative mental health outcomes. However, an enabling social support network may be a protective factor against the effects of BI distress on health. Therefo...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:International journal of environmental research and public health 2022-04, Vol.19 (8), p.4825
Main Authors: Scandurra, Cristiano, Muzii, Benedetta, La Rocca, Roberto, Di Bello, Francesco, Bottone, Mario, Califano, Gianluigi, Longo, Nicola, Maldonato, Nelson Mauro, Mangiapia, Francesco
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Body Image
Cancer therapies
Depression - epidemiology
Depression - psychology
Health Promotion
Health risks
Humans
Male
Medical imaging
Mental depression
Mental health
Patients
Perceptions
Prostate cancer
Prostatic Neoplasms
Quality of life
Radiation therapy
Retrospective Studies
Self image
Social interactions
Social organization
Social sciences
Social Support
Statistical methods
Stress
Surgery
White people
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Summary:Treatments for prostate cancer (PCa), the second most common cancer in men, may affect the body image (BI) of patients, increasing the risk of negative mental health outcomes. However, an enabling social support network may be a protective factor against the effects of BI distress on health. Therefore, the present study examined the mediating role of social support in the relationship between BI distress and depressive symptoms. Data were retrospectively collected from 197 PCa patients aged from 48 to 79 years ( = 67.19; = 6.83). The statistical package for the social sciences with PROCESS Macro was used to assess the direct and mediating effects with bias-corrected bootstrapping (10,000 samples). Results showed that BI distress was positively associated with depressive symptoms and that social support partially mediated this relationship. Moreover, among the different sources of social support, only friend support significantly mediated the association between BI distress and depressive symptoms. This study sheds light on the crucial role of social support as a dimension that can promote health in PCa patients.
ISSN:1660-4601
1661-7827
1660-4601
DOI:10.3390/ijerph19084825