Self-acceptance in patients with polycystic ovary syndrome: Associations with social anxiety and social support

Table 1 General information of polycystic ovary syndrome patients (n = 366)

Variable	Category	n (%)	Self-acceptance score (total)
Age (years)	< 25	131 (35.79)	41.85 ± 7.49
	25-35	196 (53.55)	41.10 ± 7.35
	> 35	39 (10.66)	40 (38.5, 43)
Ethnicity (Han)	No	19 (5.19)	37 (34.5, 40)
	Yes	347 (94.81)	41.60 ± 7.28
Religion	None	152 (41.53)	42.34 ± 6.16
	Yes	214 (58.47)	40.72 ± 7.96
Residence	Rural	221 (60.38)	41.88 ± 7.77
	Urban	145 (39.62)	40.65 ± 6.48
Education	Primary school or below	6 (1.64)	40 (40, 41)
	Junior high school	41 (11.20)	39.63 ± 5.71
	Senior high school/vocational	51 (13.93)	39.22 ± 6.69
	College or above	268 (73.22)	42.12 ± 7.58
Marital status	Unmarried	159 (43.44)	41.78 ± 6.85
	Married/divorced/widowed	207 (56.56)	41.10 ± 7.63
Occupation	Farmer	18 (4.92)	40 (33, 41)
	Service/manual labor	33 (9.02)	39.85 ± 5.94
	Company employee	80 (21.86)	43.61 ± 7.72
	Institution employee	48 (13.11)	41.40 ± 7.65
	Freelancer	74 (20.22)	41.36 ± 7.10
	Student	74 (20.22)	42.65 ± 7.19
	Other	39 (10.66)	37.85 ± 6.45
Monthly income (CNY)	< 3000	24 (6.56)	39.04 ± 5.47
	3000-5999	195 (53.28)	40.41 ± 6.81
	6000-9999	108 (29.51)	42.78 ± 7.98
	≥ 10000	39 (10.66)	43.92 ± 7.55
Only child	No	204 (55.74)	42.18 ± 7.11
	Yes	162 (44.26)	40.41 ± 7.44
Has children	No	189 (51.64)	42.19 ± 6.95
	Yes	177 (48.36)	40.55 ± 7.59
Desire for more children	No	191 (52.19)	40.93 ± 7.62
	Yes	175 (47.81)	41.90 ± 6.92
Family history (PCOS)	No	151 (41.26)	41.93 ± 6.22
	Yes	215 (58.74)	41.01 ± 7.97
Disease duration (years)	0-1	163 (44.54)	41.71 ± 7.59
	1-5	153 (41.80)	41.27 ± 7.31
	> 5	50 (13.66)	40.72 ± 6.33
Treatment duration (years)	0-1	298 (81.42)	41.64 ± 7.28
	1-3	58 (15.85)	40.64 ± 7.83
	> 3	10 (2.73)	38.50 ± 3.03
Number of appearance manifestations	1	86 (23.50)	43.38 ± 6.94
	2	107 (29.23)	41.50 ± 6.24
	3	103 (28.14)	42.08 ± 7.27
	4	51 (13.93)	38.61 ± 7.97
	5	9 (2.46)	36.22 ± 10.29
	6	10 (2.73)	34.90 ± 6.47

PCOS: Polycystic ovary syndrome.

Table 2 Scores of self-acceptance, social support, and social anxiety in polycystic ovary syndrome patients (n = 366)

Construct/domain	Item/subscale	Score (mean ± SD)	Mean score per item
Self-acceptance	Self-acceptance	20.78 ± 4.82	2.60 ± 0.60
	Self-evaluation	20.61 ± 4.60	2.58 ± 0.57
	Total score	41.39 ± 7.30	2.59 ± 0.46
Social support	Friend support	20.59 ± 4.74	5.15 ± 1.18
	Family support	20.76 ± 4.97	5.17 ± 1.24
	Other support	19.73 ± 4.69	4.93 ± 1.17
	Total score	61.27 ± 13.17	5.11 ± 1.10
Social anxiety	Social anxiety	18.86 ± 4.50	2.14 ± 0.75

Table 3 The mediating effect of social support between social anxiety and self-acceptance in patients with polycystic ovary syndrome

Effect	Pathway	β	SE	t	P value	95%CI		Effect proportion (%)
						Upper	Lower
Total effect	Social anxiety → self-acceptance	-0.885	0.070	-12.698	0.000	-1.022	-0.748	100
Direct effect	Social anxiety → self-acceptance	-0.810	0.067	-12.054	0.000	-0.942	-0.678	91.64
Indirect effect	Social anxiety → social support → self-acceptance	-0.074	0.030	-	-	-0.140	-0.024	8.36

CI: Confidence interval.

Table 4 Univariate analysis of factors influencing the total self-acceptance score in polycystic ovary syndrome patients

Variable	Category	F value	P value
Age (years)	< 25	0.419	0.658
	25-35
	> 35
Ethnicity (Han)	No	5.232	0.023
	Yes
Religion	No	4.430	0.036
	Yes
Residence	Rural	2.511	0.114
	Urban
Education level	Primary school or below	3.389	0.018
	Junior high school
	Senior high school/vocational
	College or above
Marital status	Unmarried	0.787	0.376
	Married/divorced/widowed
Occupation	Farmer	4.737	< 0.001
	Service/manual labor
	Company employee
	Institution employee
	Freelancer
	Student
	Other
Monthly income (CNY)	< 3000	5.024	0.002
	3000-5999
	6000-9999
	≥ 10000
Only child	No	5.364	0.021
	Yes
Has children	No	4.641	0.032
	Yes
Desire for more children	No	1.635	0.202
	Yes
Family history (PCOS)	No	1.409	0.236
	Yes
Disease duration (years)	0-1	0.386	0.680
	1-5
	> 5
Treatment duration (years)	0-1	1.264	0.284
	1-3
	> 3
No. of appearance manifestations	1	5.790	< 0.001
	2
	3
	4
	5
	6
Social support		3.887	< 0.001
Social anxiety		13.214	< 0.001

PCOS: Polycystic ovary syndrome.

Table 5 Influencing factors of self-acceptance in polycystic ovary syndrome patients and assignment descriptions

Factor	Variable name	Assignment description
Ethnicity (Han)	X1	No = 0; yes = 1
Religion	X2	No = 0; yes = 1
Education level	X3	Primary school or below = 1; junior high school = 2; senior high school or vocational = 3; college or above = 4
Occupation	X4	Dummy variables were created using ”other” as the reference category: Farmer (x41): X41 = 1, x42 = 0, x43 = 0, x44 = 0, x45 = 0, x46 = 0; Service/Manual labor (x42): X41 = 0, x42 = 1, x43 = 0, x44 = 0, x45 = 0, x46 = 0; Company Employee (x43): X41 = 0, x42 = 0, x43 = 1, x44 = 0, x45 = 0, x46 = 0; Institution Employee (x44): X41 = 0, x42 = 0, x43 = 0, x44 = 1, x45 = 0, x46 = 0; Freelancer (x45): X41 = 0, x42 = 0, x43 = 0, x44 = 0, x45 = 1, x46 = 0; Student (x46): X41 = 0, x42 = 0, x43 = 0, x44 = 0, x45 = 0, x46 = 1
Monthly income (CNY)	X5	< 3000 = 1; 3000-5999 = 2; 6000-9999 = 3; ≥ 10000 = 4
Only child	X6	No = 0; yes = 1
Has children	X7	No = 0; yes = 1
No. of appearance manifestations	X8	1 = 1; 2 = 2; 3 = 3; 4 = 4; 5 = 5; 6 = 6

Table 6 Linear regression analysis of factors associated with self-acceptance in patients with polycystic ovary syndrome (n = 366)

Variable	β (understandardized)	β (standardized)	SE	t	P value	95%CI
						Lower	Upper
Constant	46.378		2.406	19.273	< 0.001	41.646	51.111
Ethnicity (Han)	2.721	0.083	1.275	2.134	0.034	0.213	5.229
No. of appearance manifestations	-0.65	-0.108	0.237	-2.736	0.007	-1.117	-0.183
Social support	0.156	0.282	0.022	7.001	< 0.001	0.112	0.200
Social anxiety	-0.822	-0.507	0.066	-12.549	< 0.001	-0.951	-0.693

R² = 0.460, Adjusted R² = 0.454, F = 76.855, P < 0.001. CI: Confidence interval.