A Study to Assess the Level of Depression and Coping Strategies Adopted by Women Recently Diagnosed with Cancer in Tertiary Care Hospital at Kolkata

Cancer, the second most common cause of death next to cardiovascular diseases. Objectives of the study (i) To assess the level of depression& various coping strategies adopted by women recently diagnosed with cancer. (ii) To correlate the level of depression with the various coping strategies, and associate selected demographic variables (age, stage of cancer, duration of diagnosis, type of cancer) with level of depression. A cross sectional descriptive research design with survey approach was adopted. The study was conducted among 60 women recently diagnosed with cancer at Tertiary Care Hospital, Kolkata, Montgomery Asberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS)& Coping Orientations to Problems Experienced Scale (COPES) Structured questionnaires were used as tool to assess depression& coping. Results One way ANOVA, Chi square test and Correlation coefficient were used for statistical analysis. The study result showed that majority of the women (88 %) recently diagnosed with cancer had mild to moderate level of depression with mean depression score of 26.086.53 (SD). An interesting observation made in the present study was that depression scores were relatively higher among subjects who belonged to nuclear family and it was found to be significant (p=0.014). Based on mean score denial (mean 10.80) was the most commonly adopted coping strategy. Comparing the mean depression score and mean coping score, active coping (p=0.012) and restraint coping (p=0.021) were found to be significant with level of depression score. There was a significant negative correlation between depression and few coping strategies, like active coping (p= 0.006), positive reinterpretation& growth (p = 0.023), and with acceptance (p = 0.047). All the subjects had emotion focused coping. It was also observed that there was significant association between level of depression and few demographic variables such as age (p=0.001), type of family (p=0.014) and stage of cancer (0.024). The present study concluded that all cancer patients had varying level of depression, and there was significant negative correlation between level of depression and few coping strategies adopted.