Correlation Between Depression and Intimacy in Lung Cancer Patients and Theire Family Caregivers

Abstract Objective: To explore the interdependence between depression and intimacy in lung cancer patients and their family caregivers for further developing a patient- and caregiver-centered dyadic intervention. Methods: A convenient sampling was adopted to select 182 dyads of lung cancer patients and their family caregivers; the depression subscale of the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) and the Mutuality Scale (MS) were used to measure participants’ depression and intimacy respectively; and the correlation between depression and intimacy in patients and caregivers was analyzed by establishing the actor-partner interdependence model (APIM). Results: 34% of the patients and 19.2% of the caregivers were at risk of depression, with an intimacy score of 2.67±0.74 points and 2.6±0.86 points, respectively; Pearson correlation analysis showed that there was a positive correlation between the depression score (r=0.226, P<0.01) and intimacy score (r=0.344, P<0.01) in patients and caregivers; and the APIM result showed that caregivers’ depression had an actor effect on their own intimacy (b=-0.054, P=0.004) as well as a partner effect on patients’ intimacy (b=-0.041, P= 0.011). Conclusion: There is a close correlation between depression and intimacy in lung cancer patients and family caregivers. Therefore, dyadic interventions can help them to cope with cancer together.