Enforced social dependency and its relationship to cancer survival.
OBJECTIVE
This study examined relationships between survival time and enforced dependency in a group of patients with cancer.


METHODS
Data are reported from 141 patients with solid tumor cancers who participated in an interview around the time of their discharge from the hospital. Measures included medical history, demographic characteristics, and five measures of psychosocial status, including enforced personal and social dependency. Patients were followed 2 to 4 years later to ascertain survival status and, for those who had died, dates of death. Psychosocial variables were used as potential predictors in a multivariate model of survival time, which also included variables measuring severity of illness.


RESULTS
Enforced personal and social dependency, but not the other psychosocial variables, were found to contribute significantly to the model of survival time.


CONCLUSIONS
These findings suggest that survival of patients with cancer might be improved by an intervention targeted at enforced social dependency.
Jepson
C
C
University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing, Philadelphia 19104-6096, USA.
Schultz
D
D
Lusk
E
E
McCorkle
R
R
D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D003858:Dependency, Psychological; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality* / Q000523:psychology*; D016019:Survival Analysis