CORRELATES OF HOPELESSNESS IN CANCER-PATIENTS

This study examines correlates of hopelessness in cancer patients who were suffering from various diagnoses and were at different stages of disease. The study was based on questionnaires administered to a sampl e of 253 hospitalized cancer patients in the Department of Oncology, U niversity Hospital of Trondheim, Norway. A 14-item Hopelessness Scale was found to be one-dimensional and satisfactory in terms of scalabili ty and reliability. The distribution of the scale was skewed to the le ft: that is, most patients displayed low feelings of hopelessness. A m ultiple regression analysis showed that the patients? physical functio ning, age, and economic situation were significantly related to their scores on the Hopelessness Scale. A Kaplan-Meier survival analysis sho wed a significant relationship between survival and hopelessness. Howe ver, a multiple Cox regression analysis showed that hopelessness was n ot significantly related to survival when other relevant covariates we re controlled for.