Interaction of Anxiety and Hypertension on Quality of Life among Gynecological Cancer Patients: A cross-sectional study

Abstract Gynecological cancer patients are prone to anxiety, accompanied by hypertension symptoms, which seriously affect the quality of life (QOL). The study was to explore the interaction of anxiety and hypertension on QOL, and the moderating effect of social support in the impact of anxiety and hypertension on QOL of gynecological cancer patients. 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. 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 social support and anxiety were negatively correlated with QOL (β=-0.219, P < 0.01) and explained an additional 4.0% variance (F = 68.649, Adjusted R2 = 0.399, ΔR2 = 0.040, P < 0.01); Social support and blood pressure interaction item was not associated with QOL (β = 0.013, F = 55.138, Adjusted R2 = 0.365, ΔR2 = 0.001, P = 0.730). When anxiety and hypertension coexist, the QOL was seriously decreased. Social support played a moderating role in the impact of anxiety on QOL. Medical staffs should take intervention measures to improve patients’ social support to reduce the impact of anxiety on QOL.