Psychological Predictors of Untimely Visit of Prostate Cancer Patients for Oncological Treatment

Abstract

Among oncological diseases, prostate cancer ranks third after lung and stomach cancer. A timely (early) application of patients for medical help, early diagnosis and early treatment are the factors of a favourable course and survival rate. The purpose of the study is to identify a set of psychological predictors associated with untimely primary care-seeking in men with prostate cancer. 81 men diagnosed with prostate cancer took part in the study, aged from 53 to 85 years old (mean age — 64.4, standard deviation — 8.8), 42 men at early stages of the disease (I, II), 39 men at late stages (III, IV), who first sought professional medical help in the Chelyabinsk Regional Clinical Centre of Oncology and Nuclear Medicine, Chelyabinsk, Russia. Seeking medical help at the early stages of the disease (I, II stages) is timely, or an early application, while treatment at later stages (III, IV) is late treatment. The study used survey methods, in particular, psychodiagnostic techniques: the World Assumptions Scale (R. Janoff-Bulman; adapted by M.A. Padun, A.V. Kotelnikova), the Level of Subjective Control method (E.F. Bazhin, E.A. Golynkina, L.M. Etkind), the Life Orientation Test (M.F. Scheier, C.S. Carpenter, adapted by D.A. Tsiring, K.Y. Evnina), the S. Maddi test of resilience, adapted by D.A. Leontiev, E.I. Rasskazova, the SF-36 “Quality of Life Assessment” questionnaire (the translation into Russian and the approbation of the methodology was carried out by the Institute of Clinical and Pharmacological Research, St. Petersburg). The study found that men who do not seek medical help in a timely manner experience intense pain that interferes with their daily activity, they are also internalized in the field of industrial relations, showing more personal responsibility for successes and failures in the professional sphere. Also, men with prostate cancer who seek help in the late stages of the disease are close to a pessimistic expectation of the future.