Abstract
Objective: Posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) can be triggered by a diagnosis of a potentially life-threatening illness such as cancer. Little is known about the impact of cancer-related PTSS symptoms on self-management behaviors for comorbid chronic medical conditions such as diabetes mellitus (DM). Methods: We recruited patients with DM and a recent diagnosis of early-stage cancer from 2 medical centers in New York City. Cancer-related PTSS were assessed using the Impact of Events Scale (score ≥ 26). DM self-management behaviors (medication adherence, exercise, healthy diet, and glucose testing) were measured 3 months later. Logistic regression was used to assess the association between cancer-related PTSS symptoms and DM self-management behaviors, adjusting for gender, marital status, and anxiety symptoms. Results: Of 56 participants recruited, 33% reported cancer-related PTSS symptoms. Elevated cancer-related PTSS symptoms were associated with lack of healthy diet (odds ratio: 0.08, 95% confidence interval: 0.01–0.62). Conclusions: Early-stage cancer survivors with cancer-related PTSS symptoms were less likely to adhere to some DM self-management behaviors. Providers should recognize the impact of cancer-related PTSS symptoms to better support comorbid disease management in cancer survivors.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 648-653 |
Number of pages | 6 |
Journal | Psycho-Oncology |
Volume | 27 |
Issue number | 2 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Feb 2018 |
Keywords
- PTSD
- cancer
- diabetes
- medication adherence
- self-management behaviors