As a pervasive and challenging symptom of prostate cancer, cancer-related fatigue can affect physical functioning, and emotional well-being, sleep, and overall quality of life. However, new research adds to growing evidence that resilience plays a mediating role in mitigating the negative impact of fatigue among survivors of prostate cancer.
A team of researchers from Taiwan conducted the study and published their findings in the European Journal of Oncology Nursing. They explained that despite the “buffer” effects of resilience on cancer-related fatigue, its mediating role in prostate cancer care “remains insufficiently studied.”
Depression, sleep quality, and quality of life, were among the health outcomes affected by fatigue that were evaluated by investigators in the cross-sectional study, which included 122 patients with prostate cancer who were “recruited from two regional hospitals in southern Taiwan.”
The investigators leveraged a variety of validated measurement instruments to analyze fatigue, erectile function, resilience, depression, sleep quality, and quality of life among patients, some of which included the Bowel Function Instrument (BFI), the Center for Epidemiologic Studies – Depression (CES-D), and the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Questionnaire – Prostate Cancer Module (EORTC QLQ-PR25). In addition, the mediating role of resilience was assessed using structural equation modeling.
The results revealed that fatigue had a significant impact across the domains of “depression (β = 0.69, P< 0.001), prostate-specific quality of life (β = −0.32, P< 0.001), overall quality of life (β = −0.25, P< 0.01), and sleep disturbances (β = 0.57, P< 0.001).” Cancer-related fatigue was also “negatively associated with resilience (β = −0.61, P< 0.001).”
Moreover, resilience was found to partially mediate the relationship between cancer-related fatigue and the evaluated health domains, “reducing the impact of fatigue on depression (to β = 0.31), prostate-specific quality of life (to β = −0.09), overall quality of life (to β = 0.17), and sleep disturbances (to β = 0.37).”
The findings reinforced that cancer-related fatigue is a multidimensional experience closely tied to the psychological and emotional health of patients with prostate cancer, underscoring key care considerations for oncology nurses and other healthcare professionals across the multidisciplinary spectrum. However, the investigators highlighted that resilience plays a partially protective and mediating role in reducing the negative effects of fatigue on patients across the domains of sleep, quality of life, and depression.
“Incorporating resilience-building strategies into survivorship care may improve patient well-being and should be further evaluated in clinical trials,” the researchers concluded.