Emotional Distress and Cognitive Emotion Dysregulation as psychological factors in Cancer Related Fatigue among Nigerian Cancer Patients

Abstract

Cancer related fatigue (CRF) is the most clinical and common symptoms that cause significant distress to cancer patients. Although, previous studies have shown that a number physiological factors are associated with CRF, less is known about psychosocial factors associate with fatigue. The purpose of this study is to investigate some important psychological factors associated with CRF such as emotional distress and cognitive emotion dysregulation. One hundred and twenty four (35 male and 89 females) cancer outpatients aged 18 to 77years with a mean age of 54.28 (SD: 14.21) drawn from a University Teaching Hospital South-East Nigeria participated in the study. The participants responded to the validated measures of the Multidimensional Fatigue Inventory, Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale and Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire. Statistics was conducted using SPSS version 25. Data was analysed with hierarchical multiple regression. The results showed that anxiety significantly predicted all the five dimensions of CRF: general fatigue, physical fatigue reduced activity, mental fatigue and reduced motivation. The result also shows that cognitive emotion dysregulation (particularly, catastrophizing) significantly predicted physical fatigue, mental fatigue and reduced motivation. The finding in this study suggests the need for appropriate intervention aimed at reducing emotional distress particularly, anxiety which could result in higher level of CRF. Cancer patient could benefit from adaptive cognitive coping strategies to cope with CRF.