Level of hope in patients receiving medical treatment for the diagnosis of lung cancer.

摘要

Lung cancer is the most common cause of cancer deaths worldwide. Hope is considered essential to life and has been positively associated with coping. The purpose of this study was to describe the level of hope in patients receiving medical treatment for lung cancer. The study was guided by Dufault and Martocchio's multidimensional theoretical model of hope. A total of 167 patients were recruited for this cross sectional descriptive study from oncology clinics in the Southeast United States. Each participant completed a nine-item demographic self-survey questionnaire and a twelve-item, four point Likert-type Herth Hope Index (possible scores 12--48, higher score = higher hope) to measure the level of hope. Clinical information included lung cancer type, stage of lung cancer, and time since diagnosis. The overall total mean hope score was 41.48 ( SD = 5.10). This finding suggests that although lung cancer patients may be at risk for lower hope scores, this study demonstrated that lung cancer patients continue to hope throughout their disease trajectory. The other major findings demonstrated that widow/widowers (n =14, 8%), were more hopeful (M = 42.57) than divorced (n = 36, 22%), (M = 39.29) and Blacks/African Americans ( n = 22, 13.2%) had higher levels of hope (M = 43.22) than Whites/Caucasians (n = 140, 83 %) (M = 41.26). Participants undergoing second line of chemotherapy treatment n = 30 (18%), were more hopeful 43.63(4.99) compared to all others. Future studies may include measuring hope at the time of diagnosis and throughout the disease trajectory, as well as at multiple data points during different lines of chemotherapy treatment.