Prevalence and influencing factors of social alienation among elderly patients undergoing radical prostatectomy for prostate cancer

Abstract

Objectives: This study aims to not only investigate the prevalence of social alienation among elderly patients undergoing radical prostatectomy for prostate cancer but also identify the contributing factors.

Materials and methods: A total of 245 elderly patients diagnosed with prostate cancer and undergoing radical prostatectomy at a tertiary care general hospital in Jinan were included in this study. To assess the patients, several questionnaires were used. These included the General Situation Questionnaire, General Alienation Scale, Social Impact Scale, Modified Memorial Anxiety Scale for Prostate Cancer, and Perceived Social Support Scale. Pearson correlation analysis was conducted to examine the relationships between variables, whereas multiple linear regression was used to identify the factors influencing social alienation among patients who underwent radical prostatectomy.

Results: Patients who underwent radical prostatectomy had a mean total score of 44.13 ± 7.24 on the Social Alienation Scale. The results of the Pearson correlation analysis indicated that social alienation showed an inverse association with social support (r = −0.627, p < 0.05) and positive associations with age, disease stigma, and anxiety (r = 0.325, 0.575, 0.421, all p’s < 0.01) among patients who underwent radical prostatectomy. The findings from multiple linear regression analysis demonstrated that educational level, age, urinary incontinence, disease stigma, anxiety, and social support significantly influenced social alienation among elderly patients who underwent radical prostatectomy (p < 0.05).

Conclusions: Elderly patients who undergo radical prostatectomy often experience social alienation. This study found that social alienation was associated with factors such as educational level, age, urinary incontinence, social support, anxiety, and disease stigma. Consequently, healthcare providers should actively monitor the degree of social alienation in elderly patients after radical prostatectomy and provide suitable psychological care to facilitate positive social reintegration and alleviate their feelings of social alienation.

Keywords

Prostate cancer / Social alienation / Disease stigma / Social support / Nursing

Acknowledgments

None.

Statement of ethics

This study was approved by the Ethics Committee of Shandong Provincial Hospital Affiliated to Shandong First Medical University (SWYX:NO.2023-188). All participants provided written informed consent for their participation and publication of this study. All procedures performed in study involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Conflict of interest statement

The author has declared no conflict of interest.

Funding source

This project was supported by the Shandong Provincial Nature Science Foundation (ZR2020QH240), the National Nature Science Foundation of China (NSFC82002719), and the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (2022 M711977).

Author contributions

XF, KR: Participated in the writing of the paper and data analysis;

XF, FW, YL: Participated in the follow-up and data collection;

QM, JZ, ML: Participated in data analysis and proof reading;

MM, XW: Participated in the performance of the research;

MZ: Participated in research design and final approved the version to be submitted.

All authors have read and approved the final manuscript.

Data availability

The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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