Prevalence of Anxiety May Not be Elevated in Thai Ovarian Cancer Patients Following Treatment

Abstract

<b>Background:</b> To compare prevalence of anxiety in ovarian cancer patients following primary treatment tothat of normal women and to examine predicting factor. Materials and <br/><b>Methods</b>: In this cross-sectional study,56 ovarian cancer patients who had primary surgical treatment within the past five years (cancer group) and 56age-matched women who attended an outpatient clinic for check-ups (non-cancer group) were recruited fromJune 2013 to January 2014. The hospital anxiety and depression scale (HADS), was used to determine anxietylevel of the participants with the score of ≥11 suggestive of anxiety. The prevalence of anxiety symptoms and meanHADS scores for anxiety were compared between the study groups. For those with ovarian cancer, associationsof demographic and clinical factors with anxiety was examined. A p-value of <0.05 was considered significant.<br/><b>Results</b>: Participants in the non-cancer group had higher rate of medical comorbidity, higher salary, and morefrequent university education. The prevalence of anxiety was not different between the groups, at 7.1% each.The mean HADS scores for anxiety subscale were not significantly different between the groups, 5.0 in the cancergroup vs 6.1 in the non-cancer group (p=0.09). On multivariable analysis, no demographic or clinical factorssignificantly associated with anxiety were identified. For the cancer group, no association between any particularfactors and anxiety was demonstrated. <br/><b>Conclusions</b>: The prevalence of anxiety in women with ovarian cancerfollowing primary treatment was comparable to that of normal women seeking routine check-up.