Assessment of Psychological Stress Status among Iranian Cancer Patients

Objectives: we aimed to assess psychological stress status among iranian patients with cancer compared with non-cancer individuals. patients and methods: in a case-control study one hundred consecutive cancer patients who referred to fatemieh hospital in semnan, iran (regardless of the type of cancer and its stage) were enrolled. one hundred matched non-cancer individuals were selected as controls. the status of psychological stress was assessed using a questionnaire.results: the prevalence of psychological stress was 70% among cancer patients and 40% among controls (p<0.001). in a multivariate logistic regression model, the prevalence of psychological stress was shown to be higher among cancer patients compared to controls (or = 3.01, 95% ci: 1.46- 6.19, p=0.003) (table 1). conclusion: regardless of the type of cancer, iranian cancer patients suffer a high level of psychological stress which indicates the need for screening for stress among them. keywords: stress; cancer; psychology, iran.