Influence of Diagnostic Informing on Negative Emotions, Illness Perception, Self-Perceived Burden, and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in Patients with Gastrointestinal Tumors

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the influence of diagnostic informing on negative emotions, illness perception (IP), self-perceived burden (SPB), and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in patients with gastrointestinal tumors. METHODS: A total of 261 patients with gastrointestinal tumors admitted to our hospital from January 2018 to December 2020 were selected. According to whether the patients were informed of the disease diagnosis, they were divided into the informing group (n = 125) and the concealment group (n = 136). The self-rating anxiety scale (SAS), the self-rating depression scale (SDS), the brief illness perception questionnaire (BIPQ), the self-perceived burden scale (SPBS), and the PTSD checklist-civilian version (PCL-C) were used to investigate the two groups. RESULTS: The SAS and SDS scores of the informing group were lower than those of the concealment group (t = 7.853 and 6.444, P < 0.05). The total BIPQ score of the informing group was higher than that of the concealment group (t = −4.089, P < 0.05). The total SPBS score of the informing group was lower than that in the concealment group (t = 2.443, P < 0.05). The total PCL-C score of the informing group was lower than that of the concealment group (t = 2.173, P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: Diagnosis informing can reduce the negative emotions, increase positive IP, and reduce the risk of SPB and PTSD in patients with gastrointestinal tumors.