Health-related quality of life, anxiety and depression in the diagnostic phase of suspected cancer, and the influence of diagnosis

Table 4 HADS, SOC and SRH scores at baseline and follow-up stratified by cancer diagnosis (yes/no), and the difference in change between diagnosis groups

		Cancer			Not cancer
HADS	Range	Baseline	Follow-up	Difference within group^a	Baseline	Follow-up	Difference within group^a	Difference between groups at baseline^b		Difference between groups at follow-up^b		Difference between intra difference within groups^c
HADS Anxiety, n (%)		n =147	n =147	p-value	n =519	n =519	p-value	p-value	ES ^d	p-value	ES ^d	p-value	ES ^d
Score <8		100 (68)	107 (73)		338 (65)	373 (72)
Score ≥8		47 (32)	39 (27)		181 (35)	146 (28)
Mean (SD)	0–21	5.6 (4.4)	5.4 (4.3)	0.58	6.3 (4.5)	5.4 (4.2)	<0.001	0.09	0.16	0.84	0.02	0.01	0.20
HADS Depression, n (%)		n =146	n =146		n =517	n =517
Score <8		113 (77)	113 (77)		386 (75)	397 (77)
Score ≥8		33 (23)	33 (23)		131 (25)	120 (23)
Mean (SD)	0–21	4.4 (4.1)	4.5 (4.3)	1.00	5.0 (4.1)	4.5 (4.2)	0.25	0.45	0.07	0.90	0.01	0.07	0.20
Sense of Coherence		n =133	n =133		n =471	n =471
SOC Total score, median (IQR)	13–91	76 (68–83)	75 (67–81)	0.07	73 (61–80)	73 (62–80)	0.07	0.001		0.04		0.42
Self-rated Health
Self-rated Health currently, n (%)		n =145	n =145		n =523	n =523
(very) good		36 (25)	36 (25)	0.13	96 (18)	104 (20)	0.68	0.06		0.12
fair		47 (32)	51 (35)		203 (39)	216 (41)		0.08		0.21
(very) poor		62 (43)	58 (40)	1.00	224 (43)	203 (39)	0.23	0.49		0.85		0.22
Self-rated Health compared to 3 months, n (%)		n =145	n = 145		n =522	n =522
(very) good		10 (7)	24 (17)	0.12	44 (8)	149 (29)	<0.001	0.73		<0.01
fair		54 (37)	60 (41)		248 (48)	264 (50)		0.03		0.06
(very) poor		81 (57)	61 (42)	0.02	230 (44)	109 (21)	<0.001	0.01		<0.001		<0.01

Bold values show statistical differences within and between groups
^aMcNemar’s χ2 for categorial data and Wilcoxon signed-rank test for continues data. For SRH the fair category was used as reference
^bχ2 test for categorial data and Wilcoxon rank sum test for continues data
^cWilcoxon rank sum test of the mean intragroup difference
^dEffect size (ES) estimated by Cohen’s d; <0.20 = none, 0.20–0.49 = small, 0.50–0.79 = moderate, ≥0.80 = large

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