Evaluation of social connectedness, loneliness, and anxiety among cancer survivors during the 2020-2021 winter surge of COVID-19 pandemic

ABSTRACT

Background: Limited research is available about cancer survivors' level of stress, social connectedness and loneliness during the COVID-19 that can put them at increased risk for poor physical and mental health. We estimated relative decreased rate of social connectedness and increased rates of loneliness/ sadness and stress/anxiety among cancer survivors during the 2020-2021 winter surge of COVID- 19 and investigated whether decreased social connectedness is associated with increased feelings of loneliness/sadness and stress/anxiety. Methods: This cross-sectional study used data from Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey COVID-19 Winter 2021 Supplement, nationally representative phone survey of Medicare beneficiaries living in community, conducted in March-April 2021. We included 1,836 respondents who self-reported cancer history (other than skin cancer). Outcomes were self-reported feelings of loneliness/sadness and stress/anxiety over the past 4 months. The independent variable was social connectedness defined as feeling less socially connected to family/friends over the past 4 months. We used weighted descriptive statistics and multivariable logistic regression adjusting for self-reported socio-demographics (age, sex, race, income), region, metropolitan residency, Medicaid eligibility, living alone, depression, having access to internet and health care. We applied sample weights to account for complex survey design with results generalizable to 9.5 million cancer survivors. Results: Out of 9505626 cancer survivors, 6.8% self-reported as Black, 7.1% Hispanic, 80.4% White, 59% women, 42.7% reported decreased social connectedness, 20.3% increased feeling of loneliness/ sadness, and 40.0% increased feeling of stress/anxiety in the past 4 months. Women had higher rates of reporting increased feelings of loneliness/sadness (12.0% vs. 26.1%, P = <.001), stress/anxiety (30.0% vs. 46.6%, P = <.001), and decreased social connectedness (38.7% vs. 45.5% P =.028) than men in the past 4 months. Among self-reported racial and ethnic groups, Hispanics had the highest rates of reporting increased feelings of loneliness/sadness (31.2% vs. 20.5% of Whites vs. 10.2% of Blacks, P =.008) and stress/anxiety (54.0% vs. 39.4% of Whites vs. 31.2% of Blacks, P =.034). No statistically significant difference was found in social connectedness by self-reported race and ethnicity. Survivors who reported decreased social connectedness had higher odds of feeling more lonely/ sad (adjusted OR = 3.67, 95%CI 2.85-4.72, P = <.001) and more stressed/anxious (adjusted OR = 2.63, 95%CI 2.1- 3.26, p = <.001) over the past 4 months. Conclusions: Increased feelings of loneliness/ sadness and anxiety/stress in the past 4 months were prevalent among cancer survivors. Also, almost half of them reported decreased social connectedness at the end of the second year of COVID- 19.