(P-135) Depression and Anxiety in Patients with Cancer: Prevalence and Risk Factors: A Cross-sectional Study

Background: Depression and anxiety persist in cancer patients and cause an additional burden during treatment course making it more challenging in terms of its management and control.

Objectives: To explore the prevalence and risk factors of depression and anxiety among cancer patients in the inpatient and outpatient settings.

Methods: A total of 1,011 patients (399 inpatients and 612 outpatients) formed the study sample. Patients’ psychological status was assessed using the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9), and the Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7-item (GAD-7) scale. Prevalence rate of depression and anxiety was estimated by dividing the number of patients who exceeded the borderline score (10 or more for each subscale) of the HADS scale and (15 or more) GAD-7 by the total number of the patients. Risk factors were identified using logistic regression.

Results: The prevalence of depression and anxiety among all patients was 23.4% and 19.1–19.9%, respectively. Depression was more prevalent across patients who are hospitalized (37.1%) compared to patients in the outpatient setting (14.5%). Similarly, anxiety was more prevalent across the inpatients setting. In the inpatient setting, depression was more prevalent among patients with bladder cancer, while severe anxiety was more prevalent across patients with lung cancer. In the outpatient setting, depression and anxiety were more prevalent among breast and prostate cancer patients, respectively. Despite that 42.7% and 24.8% of the patients reported that they feel anxious and depressed respectively, 15.5% of them were using medications to manage them.

Conclusions: There is a need to consider mental disorders as part of the treatment protocol for cancer patients. Enhanced clinical monitoring and treatment of depression and anxiety among cancer patients are required.