Cancer and depression: A comparison of cancer victims with the general population, findings from the European Social Survey 2014.

Aims: An increasing number of people in Europe are living with cancer, either as an active disease or as a past experience. Depressive symptoms may impair quality of life in cancer patients and may constitute increased risks for disability, as well as being a risk factor for increased mortality. Our study compared self-reported symptoms of depression in people who currently or previously have experienced cancer with self-reported symptoms of depression in the general population.
Methods: Our study was based on data from the European Social Survey 2014, with representative samples from 19 countries. Depression was measured by an eight-item CES-D Scale, with a cut-point of a mean score of 2 to indicate depression. Multilevel modelling was used to examine the relationship between cancer status and depression.
Results: Respondents who at the time of the interview reported to have cancer were more likely to report symptoms above the cut-point on the depression scale than people who never had experienced cancer (unadjusted odds ratio (ORunadjusted)=2.59; 95% confidence interval (CI) 2.20-3.06; and ORadjusted=2.00; 95% CI 1.70-2.36). The difference was smaller comparing people who previously had experienced cancer to people who never had experienced cancer (ORunadjusted=1.46; 95% CI 1.19-1.79; and ORadjusted=1.28; 95% CI 1.05-1.55). The differences in depression by cancer status did not vary among the welfare state regimes. Conclusions: Respondents with a cancer disease showed a substantial elevated risk of depression after adjusting for a range of potential confounders. Respondents who had recovered also showed significantly higher adjusted risk of depression than respondents who had never experienced cancer.