Prostate cancer-specific anxiety and the resulting health-related quality of life in couples

Aims: To explore health-related quality of life (HRQOL) and its individual or mutual influences in people with prostate cancer and their spouses. Background: Few studies have explored the influence of prostate cancer-specific anxiety of these people and their spouses on their individual or mutual HRQOL. Design: Repeated-measures design. Methods: Data on 48 dyadic of people and their spouses were collected from August 2015 - December 2016. Before the people’ treatment for prostate cancer, the first data collection occurred for the people and their spouses. The second to fifth data collections were conducted 6, 10, 18, and 24 weeks after the initial measurement. The variables concerned health status, marital satisfaction, positive affect, negative affect, prostate cancer-specific anxiety, and HRQOL. The Actor-Partner-Interdependence Model was adopted for data analysis. Results: The people who had better physical HRQOL were those with good self-reported health status, higher positive affect and lower prostate cancer-specific anxiety. Better physical HRQOL was observed in the spouses who had good self-reported health status and had lower prostate cancer-specific anxiety. The people with localized cancer stages and lower negative affect had a better mental HRQOL. Better mental HRQOL was detected in spouses who had higher marital satisfaction, higher positive affect and lower negative affect. Conclusion: Nurses can improve the HRQOL of people and their spouses by implementing activities that promote health and energy and reduce stress and by administering a mindfulness intervention.