The Effectiveness of Problem-Solving Therapy Program Intervention in Reducing Depression of Older Cancer Patients

Hyunsook Yoon; Yojin Kim; Kyoungwon Choi; Yeon Ok Lim; Ilsung Nam; Woonjeong Kim; Hyejin Ham

doi:10.15384/kjhp.2018.18.1.60

Korean J Health Promot > Volume 18(1); 2018 > Article

Yoon, Kim, Choi, Lim, Nam, Kim, and Ham: The Effectiveness of Problem-Solving Therapy Program Intervention in Reducing Depression of Older Cancer Patients

Original Article

Korean Journal of Health Promotion 2018;18(1):60-70.

Published online: March 31, 2018

DOI: https://doi.org/10.15384/kjhp.2018.18.1.60

The Effectiveness of Problem-Solving Therapy Program Intervention in Reducing Depression of Older Cancer Patients

Hyunsook Yoon¹, Yojin Kim¹

, Kyoungwon Choi¹, Yeon Ok Lim², Ilsung Nam³, Woonjeong Kim¹, Hyejin Ham¹

¹Department of Social Welfare, Hallym University, Chuncheon, Korea.

²Hallym University Institute of Aging, Hallym University, Chuncheon, Korea.

³Department of Social Welfare, Sungkonghoe University, Seoul, Korea.

Corresponding author: Yojin Kim, PhD. Department of Social Welfare, Hallym University, 1 Hallimdaehak-gil, Chuncheon 24252, Korea.
Tel: +82-33-248-1336, Fax: +82-33-248-1776, k96jin@hallym.ac.kr

Received May 16, 2017 Accepted February 08, 2018

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

ABSTRACT

Background

Appropriate intervention has not been developed and implemented because depression has been overlooked for older cancer patients. However, because depression is prevalent among this population, the need for the intervention is high. The objective of this study was to verify the effectiveness of the problem-solving therapy program in reducing depression level for older cancer patients.

Methods

The experimental participants were recruited by social workers in five university hospitals in Seoul, Gyeonggi, and Gangwon. Using Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9), older cancer patients who scored between 10–19 points are selected. The subjects were assigned to the experimental group (30 patients) and the control group (30 patients) according to their will, and the experimental group participated in the problem solving therapy program for 6 weeks. The Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression 10 Scale and the Social Problem Solving Ability Scale were used to verify the effectiveness of the problem-solving program.

Results

The group homogeneity test indicated that the experimental group and the control group are homogeneous. The results of this study showed that the depression of older cancer patients had a significant positive correlation with the negative attitude toward the problem. The effectiveness of the problem solving program was significantly reduced in the experimental group (Z=−3.534, P<0.001). And the social problem solving ability of experimental group was significantly improved (Z=−2.908, P=0.003).

Conclusions

The problem-solving therapy program is effective for depression in geriatric cancer patients and this result suggests that it can be implemented as an alternative medical treatment.

Keywords: Older cancer patients, Depression, Problem-solving therapy

This work was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea Grant funded by the Korean Government (NRF-2014-S1A5B6A02048942).

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Table 1

Organization and contents of sessions

Table 2

General and disease characteristics^a

Abbreviations: GIST, gastrointestinal stromal tumor; GB, gallbladder.

Values are presented as number (%) unless otherwise indicated.

^aP-values using the results of the fisher's exact test.

Table 3

Normality test in experimental and control group

Abbreviations: W, Shapiro-Wilk's W statistic; CES-D10, Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression 10 Scale.

The normality test was performed using the Shapiro-Wilk test.

Table 4

Pre-homogeneity test of experimental and control group

Abbreviations: CES-D10, Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression 10 Scale.

Table 5

Correlation between major variables, depression and social problem solving ability

Abbreviations: CES-D10, Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression 10 Scale; SPS, social problem solving; PPO, positive problem orientation; NPO, negative problem orientation; RPS, rational problem solving style; ICS, impulsive careless style.

Analysis was used to Spearman's correlation sign ranked.

^aP<0.01, ^bP<0.05.

Table 6

Pre and post-ranking analysis of CES-D10 (depression) and social problem solving ability

Abbreviations: CES-D10, Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression 10 Scale; N, number; Exp., experimental group; Cont., control group. When comparing pretest and posttest of experimental and control group was used for nonparametric statistics of Wilcoxon signed rank test (posttest-pretest).

^aPosttest<pretest.

^bPosttest=pretest.

^cPosttest>pretest.

^dBased on positive ranks.

^eBased on negative ranks.