Interaction of anxiety and hypertension on quality of life among patients with gynecological cancer: a cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND: Patients with gynecological cancer are prone to anxiety, and many of them are accompanied by hypertension, which seriously affects the quality of life (QOL). The study was to explore the interaction of anxiety and hypertension on QOL, and the moderating effect of perceived social support (PSS) in the impact of anxiety and hypertension on QOL of patients with gynecological cancer. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted in 2020, and 566 patients have been collected from the Affiliated Hospital of China Medical University. The Self-Rating Anxiety Scale (SAS), the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy Genera tool (FACT-G), and the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support Scale (MSPSS) were used. The interaction was analyzed by additive model, and the moderating effect was conducted by regression analysis and the simple slope analysis. RESULTS: We found that 68.8% of patients had poor QOL due to the interaction between anxiety and hypertension. The relative excess risk ratio (RERI) was 22.238 (95%CI:44.119–88.596); the attribution ratio (AP) was 0.688 (95%CI:0.234–1.142); The interaction index (S) was 3.466 (95%CI: 0.823–14.435). The interaction items of PSS and anxiety were negatively correlated with QOL (β = -0.219, P < 0.01) and explained an additional 4.0% variance (F = 68.649, Adjusted R(2) = 0.399, ΔR(2) = 0.040, P < 0.01); PSS and blood pressure interaction item was not associated with QOL (β = 0.013, F = 55.138, Adjusted R(2) = 0.365, ΔR(2) = 0.001, P = 0.730). CONCLUSIONS: When anxiety and hypertension coexist, the QOL was affected. PSS played a moderating role in the impact of anxiety on QOL. Healthcare providers should take intervention measures to improve patients’ social support to reduce the impact of anxiety on QOL.