Due to the high survival rates of many young cancer patients and a high risk of second
tumors, fear of cancer recurrence (FCR) can cause serious impairment for adolescent and young
adult (AYA) cancer patients. The aim of this study is to analyze the structure of the Fear of Disease
Progression Questionnaire (FoP-Q-12) to better understand the construct of FCR.We performed a
cross-sectional survey on a sample of AYA patients aged 15–39 years with different tumor entities. FCR
was measured using the FoP-Q-12, and a network analysis was conducted to examine the relationship
of FCR symptoms. The importance of individual items in the network was determined using centrality
analyses. A total of 247 AYA patients (81.8% female, median age 31.0 years) participated in the study.
The mean FCR score in the sample was 35.9 (SD = 9.9). The majority of patients reported having high
FCR (59.5%), according to the established cut-off. The two questionnaire items with the strongest
association related to fears about work, and the most central symptom was the fear of serious medical
interventions. The centrality of emotional issues in the sample indicates that these symptoms should
be prioritized in the development of interventions targeting FCR. Further research should address
this topic with larger samples of patients in other age groups and in longitudinal studies.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:DRESDEN/oai:qucosa:de:qucosa:85923 |
| Date | 09 June 2023 |
| Creators | Richter, Diana, Clever, Katharina, Mehnert-Theuerkauf, Anja, Schönfelder, Antje |
| Publisher | MDPI |
| Source Sets | Hochschulschriftenserver (HSSS) der SLUB Dresden |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion, doc-type:article, info:eu-repo/semantics/article, doc-type:Text |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
| Relation | 2092 |
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