Examining the role of resilience in the relationship between social support and fear of recurrence among patients with gastric cancer on chemotherapy: a cross-sectional study in Jiangsu, China

Objectives The objective of this study is to investigate the relationships between fear of cancer recurrence (FCR), social support and resilience, and further determine whether resilience mediates social support and FCR among Chinese patients with gastric cancer undergoing chemotherapy. Design Multicentre cross-sectional survey. Setting Four hospitals in Jiangsu Province, China, with grade-A tertiary hospital settings. Participants 755 patients with gastric cancer on chemotherapy across four hospitals in China were included from March 2021 to September 2022. Outcome measures The Fear of Progression Questionnaire-Short Form (FoP-Q-SF), Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC) and Social Support Rating Scale (SSRS) were used to test the model's constructs. Statistical analyses were conducted by using IBM SPSS V.26.0 software. PROCESS V.3.4 macro was used to analyse the mediating role of resilience in the relationship between social support and FCR. Results The mean scores for SSRS, CD-RISC and FoP-Q-SF in patients with gastric cancer receiving chemotherapy were 41.55 +/- 7.79, 54.83 +/- 18.46 and 30.91 +/- 10.11, respectively. 43.3% (n=327) had psychological dysfunction, 56.8% (n=429) had low to medium resilience and 99.1% (n=748) had medium to robust social support. Significant differences exist among three variables, resilience positively correlated with social support, while FCR negatively correlated with resilience and social support (p<0.001). Resilience fully mediated the relationship between social support and FCR (a*b-path=-0.126, 95% CI -0.169 to -0.086). Conclusions Mediation analysis shows resilience mediates social support and FCR in patients with gastric cancer as the negative effect of social support on FCR was fully mediated by resilience. Interventions targeting these variables may reduce FCR in patients with gastric cancer undergoing chemotherapy.