Relationship between uncertainty in illness and fear of progression among lung cancer patients: The chain mediation model

Table 1 Participants’ demographic and clinical characteristics (n = 320)

Characteristics	Variable	Frequency	Percent (%)
Gender	Male	177	55.3
	Female	143	44.7
Age	40-49	134	41.8
	50-59	147	45.9
	> 60	39	12.3
Educational level	Primary or below	87	27.2
	Junior high	131	40.8
	Senior high	61	19.1
	University or above	41	12.9
Occupational status	Not working	64	20
	working	160	50
	Retired	96	30
Income	Low-income	154	48.1
	Middle-income	159	49.8
	High-income	7	2.1
Marital status	Married	308	96.3
	Divorced/widowed	12	3.7
Residence	Rural	144	45.1
	Urban	176	54.9
Cancer stage	Stage I	36	11.2
	Stage II	171	53.5
	Stage III	68	21.3
	Stage IV	45	14

Table 2 Correlations among uncertainty in illness, social support, coping style and fear of progression

Outcome variables	mean	SD	1	2	3	4
Uncertainty in illness	62.1	10.1	1.00
Social support	67.6	14.6	-0.791a	1.00
Coping style	41.8	12.8	-0.741a	0.652a	1.00
Fear of progression	36.3	9.2	0.724a	-0.746a	-0.635a	1.00

^aP < 0.01.

Table 3 Regression results in the chain mediation analysis

Criterion	Predictors	R	R2	F	Coefficients	β	t	95%CI
Social support	Uncertainty in illness	0.811	0.657	69.147	-0.290	-0.761	-23.634	-0.245-0.321
Coping style	Uncertainty in illness	0.805	0.648	73.362	-0.162	-0.421	-8.643	-0.221-0.125
	Social support				0.406	0.411	8.243	0.323-0.521
Fear of progression	Uncertainty in illness	0.901	0.811	155.673	0.045	0.285	7.415	0.031-0.056
	Social support				-0.127	-0.325	-8.276	-0.094-0.157
	Coping style				-0.138	-0.347	-9.679	-0.162-0.111

Table 4 Test results of bootstrap mediation effect

Effect relationship	Effect size	Effect ratio	Boot LLCI	Boot ULCI
Total effect	0.539		0.424	0.643
Direct effect	0.224	41.56	0.136	0.408
Total indirect effect	0.315	58.44	0.171	0.373
Uncertainty in illness → social support → fear of progression	0.128	23.81	0.045	0.153
Uncertainty in illness → coping style → fear of progression	0.115	21.25	0.048	0.157
Uncertainty in illness → social support → coping style → fear of progression	0.072	13.38	0.045	0.120

Boot LLCI: Bootstrap lower confidence interval; Boot ULCI: Bootstrap upper confidence interval.