Sense of coherence and acceptance of the disease in patients with lung cancer during palliative chemotherapy

Introduction

Lung cancer, known as a civilisation-related disease, is the most commonly diagnosed cancer and represents 13% (1.6 million) of all detected cancers around the world. The number of cases of lung cancer was over 22,000 in Poland in 2014 [1]. Lung cancer is most often diagnosed in the advanced stage requiring pharmacological treatment. Palliative treatment relates primarily to patients in that period. Palliative chemotherapy is a component of palliative treatment that is directed primarily at relieving the symptoms. An important part of palliative treatment is to provide mental support to the patient and his/her family, assisting them to adapt to living with the disease, and recognising how patients perceive the situation in which they find themselves. Dysfunction of mental feelings that manifests usually in the form of emotional disorders like anxiety or depression can appear in the course of neoplastic disease [2]. In addition, little is known about how the sense of coherence and acceptance of the disease affect psychological well-being in various difficult life situations such as cancer with unfavourable prognosis.

The sense of coherence is a general human orientation that expresses the extent to which man has a durable and dynamic sense of confidence [3]. The components of the sense of coherence are a sense of comprehensibility, resourcefulness, controllability, and meaningfulness. The sense of understandability results from the fact that a person receives incoming information as coherent, orderly, and understandable. This process gives him/her the feeling that all life situations are subject to predictability and understanding. The sense of intelligibility is a cognitive variable. The sense of resourcefulness and controllability determines to what extent a person considers sufficient resources available to them to meet the requirements. The sense of meaningfulness defines to what extent a person sees the meaning of his life, determines the certainty that struggles with reality are worth the effort and commitment [4].

Another aspect of the well-being of oncological patients is mental adaptation to cancer and restoration of mental balance. This process takes place on two levels: cognitive and emotional [5]. Acceptance allows for a rational assessment of a difficult situation in which a patient is currently ill, which makes it possible to have a real impact on his/her health by taking up the fight against the disease. It is a long-term process that covers many aspects of a patient’s life. Very often, it depends on individual personality traits and their resistance to stress. An elementary role in the process of adaptation to cancer is played by psychological resources and the ability to take advantage of the support offered [6].

Advanced cancer is very aggravating mentally, which consequently imposes on the medical staff need to take the efforts, which is adequate to communicate and care of patients with advanced lung cancer. The sense of coherence and acceptance of the disease play a significant role when experiencing stress, and cancer is a great source of this stress, particularly in the palliative treatment period. Therefore, the psychological reactions of patients to information about the disease are varied. Extremely negative reactions are caused by cancers affecting the main vital functions. That is in the case of lung cancer which mainly impairs breathing process [3].

The results of studies assessing the sense of coherence and the level of acceptance of the disease may contribute to the development of models of care, including the sphere of mental health in particular. In this way we can improve the quality of medical care, supporting the development of mental care area in patients with lung cancer. This is a very important aspect of holistic care in patients subjected to palliative chemotherapy, which focuses on terminally ill patients. This does not, however, lead to a cancer cure, which should be kept in mind in daily practice. The assessment of mental well-being is often forgotten as an important element of the therapeutic process of patients with lung cancer subjected to palliative chemotherapy. Thus, information on this subject can provide an assessment of the level of the sense of coherence and acceptance of the disease, which reflects the degree of the patient’s adaptation to living with the disease.

The primary objective was to assess the level of sense of coherence and acceptance of the disease in patients with lung cancer during palliative chemotherapy, and relationships between coherence and acceptance and socio-demographic factors. Assessment of the economic impact of lung cancer on these patients was the secondary objective.

Material and methods

The study was conducted in the period from February to June 2017 on a group of 100 persons aged 50–65 years (median 64 years) diagnosed with lung cancer, who were undergoing palliative chemotherapy in the Department of Pulmonary Diseases and Treatment of Lung Cancer at the Kujawsko-Pomorskie Centre of Pulmonology in Bydgoszcz. Twenty-six people including 19 women refused to participate in the study. The study excluded eight people due to their poor general state of health. They were patients with serious side effects after chemotherapy and/or cognitive impairment. The entire group was tested in the period between the second and the fourth cycle of chemotherapy. These were patients who were initially qualified for chemotherapy because of the severity of the disease.

The study was approved by the Bioethics Committee of the Ludwik Rydygier Collegium Medicum in Bydgoszcz. The study used the Life Orientation Questionnaire (Sense of Coherence Questionnaire – SOC-29) by Antonovsky [7], the Acceptance of Illness Scale (AIS) in the adaptation of Juczyński [8], and an original socio-demographic questionnaire. SOC-29 consists of three components (sense of comprehensibility, resourcefulness, and meaningfulness), whose overall rating gives a complete picture of the global orientation of the patient. The questionnaire consists of 29 questions, of which 12 are questions with reverse scoring. Table 1 presents the point range of the level of the sense of coherence and its components.

The AIS, which reflects the degree of adaptation of the patient to living with the disease, consists of eight questions with five possible variants of numerical answers, where 1 means „strongly agree” and 5 means „strongly disagree”. The scope of disease acceptance is presented in Table 2.

The study used a non-parametric Kruskal-Wallis rank test for comparison of many independent samples (in this case the place of residence of patients was the basis for determining the samples for analysis). The non-parametric Mann-Whitney U test was also used to evaluate the differences between one feature between the two groups. The interdependencies between the two variables were calculated using the Spearman correlation coefficient R, age, and education. The arithmetic means value and standard deviation were also used. The level of p ≤ 0.05 was accepted as statistically significant. All calculations and drawings were done using Statistica 10.0 and Microsoft Excel using the standard features of this software.

Results

Discussion

The largest group of respondents had a high or average level of coherence. This may prove the understanding of current events by patients, their high sense of resourcefulness, and the reasonableness of involvement in the daily hardships of life with the disease and creating future prospects. Components of the sense of cohesion remained together in certain connections, which was reflected in the obtained results. The same number of respondents had an average level of a sense of comprehensibility, resourcefulness, as well as a sense of meaningfulness. A sense of reasonableness was considered as the most important component because it affects the level of increase or decrease in other components. When a sense of meaningfulness is strong, the other two components of Antonovsky’s theoretical construct show an upward trend. However, if the sense of meaningfulness is at a low level, then all the components tend to fall [9]. Generally, oncological patients have a high level of coherence. This also applies to patients diagnosed with cancer, who are waiting to start treatment with ionising radiation [10].

Almost half of the women had a high level of sense of coherence, while among men the average level was most frequent. It can be concluded that in patients whose sense of coherence was low, the disease caused significant changes in their lives. This raises suspicion about the vulnerability of some patients to a very strong stressor – an incurable stage of the disease. In this case, determination the level of sense of coherence can set up the scope of care according to the patient’s needs.

The study shows that patients with cancer have a lower level of coherence in comparison with other groups of patients [11, 12]. However, according to others, even though the sense of coherence is considered to be a stable but dynamic variable, the level of coherence may be reduced by the adoption of the negative message and increase as a result of the planning or the participation in treatment alone. A significant increase in the sense of cohesion was observed even after the intervention of nursing. There is a need for additional support on the mental plane in patients with lower levels of SOC [13]. Analysing the results of various studies on the importance of a sense of coherence, it can be said that an important element is to conduct health education among patients in order to increase the level of sense of coherence [14]. In addition, the level of knowledge on the subject possessed by medical staff and the proper way to transfer this knowledge to patients has a significant influence on adaptation to the disease [15].

There was no statistically significant correlation between the level of sense of coherence and sex, age, education, or place of residence. Similar results were obtained by authors from the University of Philadelphia. Their study involved 172 patients (122 patients with cardiovascular diseases and 50 patients with cancer). It is surprising that there are no differences between the two study groups in relation to the level of coherence. Additionally, oncology patients have only a slightly lower level of coherence in comparison to the healthy population [16].

Psychometric properties of the scale of acceptance of the disease indicate that it is an accurate predictor of the quality of life conditioned by the disease, identifying with a sense of satisfaction with life and with the assessment of the current state of health. The higher the level of acceptance of the disease, the better the adaptation to the disease and the lower the sense of psychological discomfort [17]. Among our patients, almost half of them accepted the disease at an average level, slightly fewer at a high level, and only a few had a low level of acceptance. Other reports indicate otherwise and show that only 25% of cancer patients accept the disease, which often refers to the oldest age group [18]. We found no statistically significant correlation between the level of acceptance of the disease and sex, age, education, or place of residence. Similar results were obtained by the authors of other research – in which no difference between patients of both sexes, their age, education, and professional status were found [19].

Slightly different results were obtained by other authors in young patients with cancer (mean age 34.34 ±9.47 years). Age and the degree of religiosity of respondents had an influence on the degree of acceptance [20]. The low level of acceptance of the disease at a relatively young age can result from the failure of some sense of social roles or the loss of existing plans and aspirations and can also be the result of the shock accompanying diagnosis. Regarding the acceptance of the disease, most people answered negatively to the statement: disease sometimes makes me feel useless. This indicates that the patient has a sense of their own usefulness within the family and society despite the poor prognosis. It is important to proceed with the patient in order to strengthen this feeling. Most respondents agreed with the statement: I think that people staying with me are often embarrassed because of my illness. This is very important for medical staff and people from the patient’s environment. Conversations about incurable disease, suffering, and existential or physical death are still taboo. Such subjects are often avoided as a result of inadequate preparation for the holistic care of an incurable disease. Communication between medical staff, the patient’s family, and the patient requires many changes, acquiring new skills, and above all theoretical preparation.

Besides the psycho-physical aspect of adaptation to cancer and its acceptance, the economic aspect is an important element that should be noted. They were asked whether the disease has affected livelihoods and whether patients incurred costs associated with the treatment. Almost all of them bore the costs associated with the treatment of cancer, and almost every third patient experienced a change of source of income as a result of the disease. The vast majority of patients reported a reduction of economic status. This problem was publicised after the publication of the study „Cancer – patient experience”, which was the largest qualitative study conducted in recent years in Poland. The report illustrates the different facets of the disease from the perspective of patients undergoing long-term oncological treatment that involves an additional mental and financial burden. Basic drugs are usually reimbursed, while costs associated with transportation, specialised diet, and hygienic supplies can exceed the financial capacity of patients and their families [20]. It is obvious that the financial problem largely affects the mental well-being of the patient. It is impossible to accept the disease and resign oneself to disease in a situation where a patient has inadequate funds to cover the costs arising therefrom. Often the patient’s awareness that it is impossible to prolong life or improve its quality in the absence of financial resources is unacceptable.

Finally, it should be remembered that during the recruitment (which can be a certain limitation) 25% of patients were not included in the study; these were patients who refused or did not qualify because of their health condition. Nevertheless, in our opinion, the study can be generalised. To obtain the appropriate number in the group, the study was carried out in two centres. It should be emphasised that they were patients with advanced lung cancer during toxic chemotherapy. Due to the basic illness, treatment, and specific time of the examination, recruitment in such cases always has its limitations.

Conclusions