Psychosocial burden and coping strategies among lymphoma patients: a nurse-led hematology care approach.

BACKGROUND

Patients with lymphoma frequently experience significant psychosocial burden, including anxiety, depression, and impaired quality of life, which may persist throughout the disease trajectory. Coping strategies and nurse-led care are recognized as important psychosocial determinants; however, their interrelationships remain insufficiently explored in lymphoma populations.

OBJECTIVE

This study sought to assess psychosocial distress, coping strategies, and quality of life in patients with lymphoma, while also investigating the influence of nurse-led care and the possible mediating effect of adaptive coping.

METHODS

A cross-sectional observational study was conducted among 200 patients with Hodgkin and non-Hodgkin lymphoma at a tertiary hospital in China. Psychological distress was assessed using the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), quality of life using the EORTC QLQ-C30, and coping strategies using the Brief COPE Inventory. Nurse-led care was quantified using a composite nursing support score. Multivariable regression, mediation analysis, and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis were performed.

RESULTS

Patients exhibited moderate levels of anxiety (9.6 ± 4.2) and depression (8.8 ± 3.9), with 45 and 37% of participants, respectively, scoring above the clinical cut-off (HADS ≥ 11). Global quality of life was moderately impaired (58.3 ± 16.5). Adaptive coping partially mediated the relationship between nursing support and quality of life. Higher nursing support scores were moderately and negatively correlated with both anxiety (r = -0.32, p < 0.001) and depression (r = -0.28, p < 0.001), and positively correlated with global quality of life (r = 0.27, p < 0.001). Nursing support demonstrated strong discriminative ability for clinically significant anxiety (AUC = 0.89).

CONCLUSION

Lymphoma patients experience substantial psychosocial burden. Higher nursing support was associated with lower distress and better quality of life, partly through its correlation with adaptive coping strategies.