How Patient-Centered Communication Shapes Cancer Survivors' Health: The Role of Worry About Recurrence

Patient-centered communication (PCC) is a key component of high-quality cancer care. Although prior research links PCC to improved health outcomes, including reduced psychological distress, the processes through which these associations may occur remain underexplored.

Guided by Epstein and Street's conceptual model of PCC, this study examined associations between PCC and three health outcomes-psychological distress, physical function limitations, and general health-and explored whether worry about cancer recurrence represents a cognitive-emotional pathway linking PCC with these outcomes.

Data were drawn from 1119 adults with a history of cancer who participated in the 2021 Health Information National Trends Survey-Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results Program (HINTS-SEER). Weighted regression analyses examined associations among PCC, worry about recurrence, and health outcomes, while exploratory analyses assessed theoretically informed indirect associations.

Participants (Mage = 70.86 years; 46.1% male) generally reported low psychological distress; 19.6% reported at least one physical function limitation, and 16.0% rated their general health as fair or poor. Higher PCC was associated with lower psychological distress but not with physical function limitations or general health. Exploratory analyses indicated that higher PCC was associated with less worry about cancer recurrence, which was in turn associated with lower psychological distress and a reduced likelihood of fair-to-poor general health.

PCC may promote emotional well-being among cancer survivors, in part by reducing worry about recurrence. These findings underscore the importance of strengthening PCC in survivorship care to mitigate psychological distress and support further longitudinal research to clarify temporal relationships.