Use of internet to assess psychological distress in breast cancer patients

Abstract

Objective: The object of this study is to determine the prevalence of distress symptoms and coping strategy among a large sample of Spanish-speaking breast cancer patients recruited on-line.

Methods: We designed a cross-sectional study with breast cancer survivors (n=434) that were accrued via Internet (http://www.cancermama.org). Participants completed a demographic and medical questionnaire, and they were also evaluated using self-reporting measures of psychological distress and adjustment to cancer; the 14-item Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) and the 29-item version of the Mental Adjustment to Cancer Scale (Mini-MAC), respectively.

Results: Global HAD as a measure of distress on-line is reliable in our study. The overall prevalence rate of distress for our sample was 50%, with no differences for socio-demographics or medical status variables. Concerning to anxiety punctuation 66.2% were clinical cases and 34.5% reached the clinical level for depression. These results were associated with Mini-MAC scales as expected.

Conclusions: These results offer support for the use of Internet as valid tool for the psychological distress assessment in patients with breast cancer Spanish-speaking patients. Internet brings us the possibility to identify high-risk patients through psychological screening in order to provide early interventions, and Global HAD punctuation may be an accurate tool. However more studies are needed to analyze internet illness consulting situation as an anxious provoking space.