Cross-sectional study on the impact of receiving potentially sensitive test results online on the emotional health of patients with breast cancer.

Abstract

1575 Background: Internet has changed the way people communicate. In healthcare, patients have now easy access to their test results online; however, this has been particularly challenging in oncology because of potentially sensitive results present in imaging and pathology reports and tumor markers. In breast cancer, survival rates have improved significantly and more people are getting screened regularly. Providing online access to test results to patients may have ambiguous outcomes, such as increasing their engagement, but also their anxiety levels. This study aims to investigate associations between online access to potentially sensitive test results and effects on the emotional health of patients with breast cancer, particularly for symptoms of anxiety and depression. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study with 385 patients who had been diagnosed with breast cancer in the past 5 years. Participants completed a printed questionnaire on their approach to receiving test results (whether or not they accessed the results online), their feelings of anxiety about the results, and validated questionnaires assessing symptoms of anxiety (GAD-7) and depression (PHQ-9). Descriptive data analysis was performed using simple and cross tabulations for qualitative variables and measures such as mean, median, mode and standard deviation for quantitative variables. The normality of the data was checked using the Shapiro-Wilk test, while associations between qualitative variables were assessed using the Pearson chi-square test or Fisher's exact test. The significance level was set at 5%, using SPSS software version 22.0. Results: Partial results presented here include 329 patients, representing 85.45% of the total sample. A statistically significant association was found between the habit of accessing test results online and higher levels of anxiety (p < 0.05). Patients with positive screening for anxiety on GAD-7 reported greater anxiety while waiting for results (p < 0.05), while no such association was found for depression. In addition, online access to results showed a significant association with education level (p < 0.05) and patient age (p < 0.05), with younger patients and those with a higher level of education showing a greater propensity for this practice. However, no significant associations were found between tumor stage (early vs. metastatic) or time from diagnosis and the perception of anxiety (p > 0.05). Conclusions: There is an apparent association between the habit of receiving test results online and anxiety levels in patients with breast cancer. The recruitment is now complete, and results of the entire cohort will be available for presentation.