Cancer patients attending treatment during COVID-19: intolerance of uncertainty and psychological distress

The COVID-19 pandemic presents specific challenges for cancer patients attending oncology treatment. Using a mixed-methods design (convergent parallel design), we aimed to assess the experience, perceptions, and reactions of cancer patients during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Participants were cancer patients receiving treatment at the hospital during the pandemic (July to August 2020). In study 1, 95 participants filled out a questionnaire measuring COVID-19 experiences and perceptions, psychological distress, and intolerance of uncertainty. In study 2, in-depth interviews were conducted with 10 cancer patients, probing their experience during the COVID-19 period.

Most participants experienced the COVID-19 pandemic as a major threat that would affect future health, most attended all or most of their scheduled treatments, and their mean level of psychological distress was low. A mild decrease in social support was reported, and remote contacts and support from the community had not compensated for decreased person-to person contacts. In addition, intolerance of uncertainty was related to higher psychological distress, which was partially mediated by perceptions of threat. The analysis of in-depth interviews strengthened the quantitative findings by elucidating the experience of fear of contagion alongside determination to continue treatment.

The mixed-methods design enabled us to examine the responses of cancer patients attending treatment. The findings suggest that in times of extreme uncertainty such as COVID-19, health experts need to screen cancer patients and survivors for emotional and instrumental support needs and identify patients and survivors with high intolerance of uncertainty as a risk factor for psychological distress.