After prostate cancer: Predictors of well-being among long-term prostate cancer survivors

BACKGROUND. Despite growing numbers of prostate cancer (PCa) survivors, to the authors' knowledge there is little research regarding how personality, coping, and treatment influence men's psychologic well-being, as distinct from the often-studied functional, health-related quality of life. The purpose of this study was to examine how hope, optimism, use of coping strategies, and primary treatment predict well-being, positive and negative affect, impact, depression, and adaptive changes among PCa survivors. METHODS. A questionnaire tapping personality, primary treatment, and coping strategy predictor variables and outcome variables of both positive and negative aspects of well-being was sent to 1-8-year PCa survivors. The final sample included 490 men. RESULTS. Basic univariate analyses demonstrated that the men reported being happy, hopeful, and positive, with low levels of negative outcomes. Regression analyses demonstrated that positive outcomes were influenced primarily by personality. Negative outcomes were found to be affected by both personality and coping strategies. Adaptive changes were the only ones found to be significantly affected by primary treatment. CONCLUSIONS. Although longer-term survivorship of PCa does not appear to be a highly traumatic experience, personality factors and the use of coping strategies years after treatment were found to introduce variability to well-being in complex ways, differing in relation to positive and negative outcomes. Clinical attention should be given to how the experience of cancer fits within the larger context of an individual's attitudes, choices, and coping strategy orientation.