TITLE: Association of Alcohol Use, Depression, and Pain among Cancer Patients
AUTHOR INFO
Nneoma Ubah
Manik Ahuja
Eugene Annor
Author(s) Affiliations:
College of Public Health, East Tennessee State University, Johnson City, TN 37614, United States
Background: Cancer is often a chronic illness that evolves with pain. Studies have shown that 60% of patients with cancer are burdened with pain, and 25% to 30% have severe pain. Uncontrolled pain has been recognized as one of the significant causes of depression among cancer patients. Depression is a comorbid syndrome that affects 25% of cancer patients, but only 5% see a mental health professional. Major depressive disorders have very high rates of comorbidity, with substance use disorders ranging from 12% to 80%. However, there is limited data on the association of depression, alcohol use disorders, and pain among cancer patients. This study aims to identify this association.
Methods: We used cross-sectional data from the 2021 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, a nationally representative U.S. telephone-based survey of adults aged 18 and above. We also extracted data for cancer patients (n=8,963). Logistic regression analysis was conducted to test the association between pain associated with cancer and two outcomes, depression, and alcohol use. We controlled for income, race, educational status, health insurance status, race/ethnic minority status, and age.
Results: Overall, 8.6% (n=843) of patients reported pain from their cancer, while 20.2% reported depression and 44.4% reported alcohol use. Pain from cancer was associated with significantly higher odds of depression (OR=1.75, 95% CI, 1.49, 2.05) along with low income (OR=1.93, 95% CI, 1.73, 2.16) and less than high school education (OR=1.30, 95% CI, 1.02, 1.65). Pain from cancer was not significantly associated with alcohol use, while male gender (OR=1.46, 95% CI, 1.34, 1.58) among cancer patients predicted higher odds of alcohol use.
Conclusion:
Depression and alcohol use have been identified as significant problems among cancer patients with pain. Among the cancer patients studied, pain from cancer was not significantly associated with alcohol use. However, cancer patients burdened with pain were more likely to suffer depression. This indicates a need to invest more effort in identifying cancer patients with depression and managing their pain appropriately to improve their outcomes. Proper pain management should also be prioritized in cancer care to prevent depression.
Keywords: Pain management, Cancer Pain, Alcohol, Depression.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ETSU/oai:dc.etsu.edu:asrf-2154 |
| Date | 25 April 2023 |
| Creators | Ubah, Nneoma, Ahuja, Manik, Annor, Eugene |
| Publisher | Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University |
| Source Sets | East Tennessee State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | Appalachian Student Research Forum |
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