A correlational study of cognitive appraisal, coping strategies and health status in prostate cancer patients

The purposes of this study were (1) to identify the relationship between length of time since diagnosis, current stage of disease, and cognitive appraisal and coping strategies in prostate cancer patients; and (2) to identify the relationship between length of time since diagnosis, stage of disease, cognitive appraisal, and coping strategies with health status in prostate cancer patients. The model of stress and coping (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984) was chosen to guide this study.;A correlational/cross-sectional design was used to examine the relationship between the study variables. The convenience non-probability sample of this study was composed of 131 subjects who were diagnosed and being treated at two major hospitals in metropolitan Cleveland.;The patients' characteristics sheet, the Cognitive Appraisal of Health Scale (Kessler, 1998), the Revised Ways of Coping Checklist (Folkman and Lazarus, 1988), and the Short-Form Health Survey (Ware, 1992) were the instruments used to collect the data. The data were collected by mailed questionnaires and from the patients' charts. Descriptive statistics, Pearson Product-Moment correlation coefficients, and multiple regressions were used to analyze the data.;Findings from this study indicated that the more threat appraisal used by prostate cancer patients the worse their general health. However, general health was found to be better with more challenge appraisal. Prostate cancer patients who used more harm/loss appraisals were found to experience worse physical health, social functioning, mental health, and vitality/energy. Surprisingly, when prostate cancer patients appraised their diagnosis as more harm/loss, their bodily pain and role limitations were decreased. The problem-focused and emotion-focused dichotomy of coping did not predict health status in prostate cancer patients. Time since diagnosis and stage of diagnosis did not contribute to the explanation of health status of prostate cancer patients. Study results indicated a need to operationalize time since diagnosis and stage of disease in a different way in order to evaluate their effects on prostate cancer patients. The results of this research increase nursing knowledge about the role of cognitive appraisal and coping strategies in prostate cancer patients' health status; further research is needed in this area.