Does depression affect illness beliefs in cancer survivors?
156 Background: As cancer survivors live longer and many die from their comorbidities rather than from cancer, it is important to understand how a cancer diagnosis may impact survivors’ perception of their other comorbidities. In addition, cancer is associated with increased risk for depression. We aim to assess the relationship between depressive symptoms and illness beliefs in cancer survivors with diabetes (DM). Methods: We recruited 75 patients with DM who were newly diagnosed with early-stage breast, prostate, lung or colon cancer. Depressive symptoms were assessed with the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale; illness beliefs were assessed with the Brief Illness Perception Questionnaire. Illness belief questions were dichotomized at the median, and non-parametric analyses were used to assess the relationship between depressive symptom scores and presence of illness beliefs. Results: Seventy-five patients with DM and a new diagnosis of cancer were enrolled. The average age was 61.8 years, 47% were male, 45% had breast cancer, 42% prostate cancer, 8% colon cancer, and 4% had lung cancer. Patients who perceived having more control over their DM had lower depression scores (median 26 vs. 20, p = 0.01). Furthermore, those who did not feel their health depended on their DM medications at present (median score 21 vs. 26, p = 0.007) had lower depression scores. Regarding beliefs about cancer, those who reported being less concerned about cancer had lower depression scores (median 21 vs. 25, p = 0.01). Additionally, patients who did not feel that cancer affected their lives much (median 19 vs. 26, p = 0.001) or who did not report that cancer affected them emotionally (median 19 vs. 26, p = 0.001) had lower depression scores. Patients’ perception of their control over their cancer was not associated with depression scores. Conclusions: Cancer survivors with higher depression scores report being more affected by cancer and simultaneously feel they have less control over DM. It is important to support survivors emotionally while increasing their self-efficacy over their comorbidity management to improve survivors’ health outcomes.