Prevalence and severity of anxiety in cancer patients: results from a multi-center cohort study in Germany

Purpose Anxiety is an accompanying symptom in cancer patients that can have a negative impact on patients. The aim of the present analyses is to determine the prevalence of anxiety, taking into account sociodemographic and medical variables, and to determine the odds ratio for the occurrence of anxiety in cancer patients compared to general population. Methods In this secondary analyses, we included 4,020 adult cancer patients during and after treatment from a multi-center epidemiological study from 5 regions in Germany in different treatment settings and a comparison group consisting of 10,000 people from the general population in Germany. Anxiety was measured with the Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD-7) questionnaire. In multivariate analyses adjusted for age and sex, we calculated the odds of being anxious. Results The prevalence of anxiety was observed to be 13.8% (GAD-7 ≥ 10). The level of anxiety was significant higher for patients in rehabilitation, compared to patients during inpatient and outpatient treatment ( p = .013). Comparison with the general population yielded a 2.7-fold increased risk for anxiety among cancer patients (95% CI 2.4–3.1; p < .001). Patients with bladder cancer (OR, 5.3; 95% CI 3.0–9.4) and testicular cancer (OR, 5.0; 95% CI 2.1–12.1) showed the highest risk of having high levels of anxiety. Conclusion The results highlight the importance of identifying anxiety in cancer patients.