Health anxiety and the negative interpretation of children's bodily symptoms in mothers of cancer patients

PURPOSE: Fear of progression (FoP) is a substantial concern for family caregivers of cancer survivors and is related to a number of adverse outcomes, including increased mental distress and worse quality of life. Previous research has revealed that health anxiety (HA) contributes to fear of relapse, but cognitive factors underlying establishing and maintaining FoP in mothers of cancer patients have not been examined. In this study, we were looking to investigate this association.

METHODS: We used the computerized interpretation bias (IB) assessment to investigate the biased interpretation of ambiguous bodily information and its association with FoP through HA among 69 mothers of cancer patients and 42 mothers of healthy kids.

RESULTS: Mothers of cancer patients interpreted more negatively ambiguous bodily symptoms than mothers of healthy kids. Moreover, they had higher levels of HA and FoP and lower quality of life than the healthy group. Also, among mothers of cancer patients, the relationship between negative IB and FoP is mediated by their HA.

CONCLUSIONS: The findings of this study imply that negative IB may contribute to increased HA, which in turn contributes to higher levels of FoP among the mothers of cancer patients, which may reduce the quality of life of their children.

IMPLICATIONS FOR CANCER SURVIVORS: From these findings, we propose that changing HA through modification of IB might lower the FoP in mothers of kids with cancer and improve the mother and child's quality of life.