Rose Karvandi, BS, a medical student at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine, and research colleagues, conducted the study and published their findings in Gynecologic Oncology Reports.
The researchers explained that SDoH contribute to 80% of health outcomes in oncology care and that perceived stress and social support levels, in combination with SDoH, have the potential to “shape treatment experiences and quality of life” in patients with gynecologic cancers.
A total of 51 patients with newly diagnosed gynecologic cancers—including uterine, ovarian, cervical, vaginal, and vulvar cancer—participated in the study and “prospectively completed” an adapted survey based on the Protocol for Responding to and Assessing Patients’ Assets, Risk, and Experiences (PRAPARE) instrument.
Investigators assessed associations of social support and perceived stress with SDoH burden through logistic regression, and high SDoH burden was defined as having three or more needs.
Of the entire study cohort, 68.6% of patients were White and 29.4% of patients were members of other racial groups. Needs that were evaluated via survey responses included food-related needs, public insurance needs, and unemployment. Forty-nine patients out of the study cohort fully completed the survey.
The survey identified food-related needs as “most prevalent,” with 94.1% of patients reporting unmet food-related needs. Investigators highlighted that barriers to food access, food insecurity, or illness-related access issues could be factors contributing to this finding.
Public insurance was identified as another prevalent need (18.4%), followed by unemployment (9.8%). Among patients (n=49) who completed the survey, most (65.3%) had one unmet need, more than a quarter (26.5%) had two unmet needs, and 8.2% of patients had three or more unmet needs.
A majority of the patients reported high levels of social support (60.8%), and investigators found that SDoH burden did not correlate with social support (odds ratio [OR], 1.00; 95% CI, 0.44-2.24; P=0.993). In contrast, higher levels of perceived stress correlated with “increased odds of high SDoH burden” (OR, 3.35; 95% CI, 1.17-9.58; P=0.024).
Among patients who had three or more unmet needs, higher mean stress levels were reported compared with those who had fewer unmet needs.
Overall, investigators highlighted that unmet SDoH needs were common in patients with newly diagnosed gynecologic cancers, and the finding that higher stress levels correlated with increased SDoH burden underscored that perceived stress and social support “may co-occur.”
“Screening for SDoH and stress at diagnosis may identify vulnerable patients and guide early interventions,” the researchers concluded.