Main aim: This study examines the relationship between social support on the one hand, and coping with stress, and anxiety and depression on the other hand. The research literature shows that lack of social support might result in health impairments. Social support might work as a buffer protecting against reactions towards extern stressful life events such as terminal cancer. Thus, our hypothesis is that patients who reported high degree of social support will do better in terms of coping with stress and experience less anxiety and depression, than patient with low degree of social support.
Methods: The sample comprised patients who had participated in a cluster randomized trial of palliative care conducted at the Palliative Medicine Unit (PMU), University Hospital of Trondheim. In total, 434 patients were enrolled, 235 in the intervention and 199 in the control group. The patients completed questionnaires, including measure of social support and quality of life. Social support is measured by the scale reported by MacAdam (Palliat Med 1987). Anxiety and depression is measured by the emotional functioning subscale in EORTC QLQ-C30. Coping with stress is measured by the Impact of Event Scale (IES).
Results and conclusion: The research is in progress and the results will be presented at the conference.