RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN NUTRITIONAL STATUS, FOOD INTAKE, AND DEPRESSION AND ANXIETY STATUS OF BREAST CANCER PATIENTS TREATED AT A HIGH-COMPLEXITY ONCOLOGY UNIT

Abstract

Currently, there is an increase in the number of cases of obesity, and this incidence tends to grow, especially in women with breast cancer. Associated with the growth of obesity, breast cancer has increased in number over the last four decades, and in addition to nutritional status, during the treatment process the patient undergoes changes both emotionally and in eating behavior, with possible symptoms of anxiety and depression awakened along the way to prolonging life. Thus, the objective of the present study was to verify the relationship between nutritional status, food intake, and depression and anxiety status of breast cancer patients treated at a high-complexity oncology unit. A cross-sectional study was carried out with non-probabilistic, descriptive and quantitative sampling of 57 patients with breast cancer enrolled and followed up at the nutrition outpatient clinic of UNACON (High Complexity Oncology Unit) of the João de Barros Barreto University Hospital in Belém do Pará. Data collection was carried out through a structured questionnaire and the questions aimed to collect social (age), economic (family income in minimum wages), demographic (place of birth – city and state of birth), lifestyle (smoking, alcohol consumption and physical activity), education level (education) and number of enrollment in the institution, food consumption (frequency of regular food consumption,  achievement of the recommended intake of fruits and vegetables, indicators of healthy and unhealthy eating), and the degree of anxiety and depression. Through the analysis of Multiple Linear Regression and Spearman's Correlation, it was obtained as a final result that there was a statistical correlation between food consumption and depression (p=0.01) and food frequency and depression (p=0.01). Therefore, this may show that the more frequently natural foods appear in meals and the less these foods are consumed, the depression variable increases. In addition, there was no significant correlation between nutritional status and anxiety and depression of the patients analyzed. It was also seen that most of the participants were obese. These findings show the need for further studies on the subject, especially with probabilistic sampling and with a larger sample size of breast cancer patients in the state of Pará for better visualization of the situation and to outline therapeutic plans.