Abstract
PURPOSE: Thyroid cancer, especially differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC), is a highly prevalent chronic disease that is known to cause considerable distress, related both to the high recurrence and treatment of the disease. The Pictorial Representation of Illness and Self Measure-Revised 2 (PRISM-R2) has been developed as a visual measure to assess suffering. The aim of this study was to evaluate the ability of the instrument to identify patients with DTC with different levels of suffering who may need additional support care. METHODS: Participants were 338 adult inpatients with DTC who were accepting the radioiodine for remnant ablation in the nuclear medicine department. The assessment tools included the following: (1) the PRISM-R2, yielding Self-Illness Separation (SIS) and Illness Perception Measure (IPM); (2) distress thermometer (DT), a measure of thyroid cancer-related distress; (3) posttraumatic growth inventory (PTGI); (4) 12-item Short-Form health survey (SF-12); and (5) the Supportive Care Needs Survey Short Form (SCNS-SF34). In addition, the content validity of PRISM-R2 was tested using the patients' comments. RESULTS: SIS and IPM showed medium intercorrelation (r = -.482; p < 0.01), and both of them showed strongly significant associations with DT. SIS also showed significant correlations with one factor of PTGI (personal strength), four factors of SF-12 (general health, role-emotional, mental health, and vitality), and one factor of SCNS-SF34 (psychological needs). IPM showed significant correlations with five factors of SF-12 and all the factors of SCNS-SF34. No correlation was found between IPM and PTGI. CONCLUSIONS: PRISM-R2 is a well-accepted and understandable tool to assess the psychological burden of patients with thyroid cancer in Chinese settings. It may be useful to guide or evaluate the interventions for the patients.