Background and AimPsycho-oncology is a cross-disciplinary and collaborative sub-specialty of oncology that focuses on the psychological, behavioral, ethical, and social aspects of cancer in clinical settings. The aim of this bibliometric study was to analyze and characterize the research productivity and trends in psycho-oncology between 1980 and 2021.MethodologyIn May 2022, the Scopus® database was searched for psycho-oncology-related publications using predetermined search keywords with specific restrictions. Lotka’s law was applied to check the authors’ productivity, while Bradford’s law was used to assess the core journals in this field. The data was analyzed for different bibliometric indicators in the Biblioshiny package, an RStudio tool for bibliometric analysis.ResultsThe initial search resulted in a total of 2,906 publications. Of which, 1,832 publications were included in the final analysis, published between 1980 and 2021. The analyzed publications were written by 7,363 authors from 74 countries and published in 490 journals. There has been a significant increase in psycho-oncology-related publications after 2010. The most productive year was 2021 (n = 365). The annual scientific growth rate was found to be 13.9%. The most relevant leading author in terms of publications was Luigi Grassi from the University of Ferrara, Italy (n = 42). Lotka’s law found that the number of authors declined as the number of papers written increased. The core journals were Psycho-Oncology, Supportive Care in Cancer, and Journal of Psychosocial Oncology. The most frequently used author’s keywords other than searching keywords were cancer, oncology, quality of life, depression, and anxiety. Recent psycho-oncology-related topics included mental health, COVID-19 infection in humans, people, pandemic, and tumor. The University of Sydney was the top-ranked institution. The leading country in terms of publications, citations, corresponding author country, and international collaboration was the United States of America (United States). The United States had the strongest collaboration with Australia and Canada.ConclusionThe research hotspots include mental health conditions and interventions in cancer patients. We identified international collaboration and research expenditure to be strongly associated with psycho-oncology research productivity. Researchers’ collaboration, which is visible among developed countries, should be extended to low-income countries in order to expand psycho-oncology-related research and understanding.
The current study was aimed to assess the reliability and validity of the Urdu version of the Psychosomatic Symptoms Scale (PSSS) in Pakistani patients. The PSSS is time-saving and easy to administer. The field experts drafted the translated version of PSSS. The Urdu version of PSSS, Patient Health Questionnaire- 9 (PHQ-9), and Symptom Checklist-90 (SCL-90) Urdu version were used for assessment. The translation procedure was comprised of three steps, namely forward translation, back translation, and expert panel discussion. A sample of 982 (men = 50.5% and women = 49.5%) was collected with a convenient sample technique from a general hospital and private clinic. The Cronbach’s alpha for PSSS was 0.974. The confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) revealed that all the items factor loading of PSSS were more than 0.35, the root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) was = 0.062, the standardized root mean residual (SRMR) was = 0.043, and the comparative fit index (CFI) was = 0.97 with 90% CI. The results also showed that women (M = 72.08, SD = 6.79) are more likely to have psychosomatic symptoms than men (M = 51.21, SD = 13.36) on P < 0.001. The PSSS Urdu version is proven to be a useful and reliable instrument for screening, monitoring, and assessing Pakistani patients’ psychosomatics symptoms.
Mental health is one of the major causes of disability worldwide, and mental health problems such as depression and anxiety are ranked among the top 25 leading causes of disease burden in the world. This burden is considerable over the lifetime of both men and women and in various settings and ages. This study aims to compare the mental health status of people in China and Pakistan and to highlight the mental health laws and policies during COVID-19 and afterwards. According to the literature on mental health, before the COVID-19 pandemic, mental health problems increased gradually, but during and after the COVID-19 pandemic, an abrupt surge occurred in mental health problems. To overcome mental health disorders, most (but not all) countries have mental health laws, but some countries ignore mental health disorders. China is one such country that has mental health laws and policies and, during the COVID-19 pandemic, China made beneficial and robust policies and laws, thereby succeeding in defeating the COVID-19 pandemic. The mortality rate and financial loss were also lower than in other countries. While Pakistan has mental health laws and general health policies, the law is only limited to paperwork and books. When it came to COVID-19, Pakistan did not make any specific laws to overcome the virus. Mental health problems are greater in Pakistan than in China, and China’s mental health laws and policies are more robust and more widely implemented than those in Pakistan. We conclude that there are fewer mental health issues in China than in Pakistan both before and since the COVID-19 pandemic. China has strong mental health laws and these are robustly implemented, while the mental health law in Pakistan is not applied in practice.
BackgroundDepression is one of the greatest public health problems worldwide. The potential benefit of social participation (SP) on mental health has been widely acknowledged. Nevertheless, a few studies have used propensity score matching (PSM) to reduce the influence of data bias and confounding variables. This study explored the effect of social participation on depression among middle-aged and older Chinese persons through a PSM method, considering the frequency, type, and quantity of SP. Effects were compared among different age groups, genders, and places of residence.MethodsThe datasets were obtained from the 2018 wave of the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study. A total of 9,404 respondents aged 45 and above were included in the study. PSM and ordinary least squares methods were used to estimate the effect of social participation on depression.ResultsPSM estimation results showed that SP had a significantly positive effect on decreasing depression scores (p < 0.001) by 0.875–0.898 compared with persons without SP. All types of SP had a significantly positive effect (p < 0.001), and participating in community activities had the largest effect (β = −1.549 to −1.788, p < 0.001). Higher frequency of participation and more types of SP promoted lower depression scores; subgroup analyses revealed that the promotion effect was significantly greater among women, those aged ≥75 years, and those living in urban areas.ConclusionPSM indicated that SP could alleviate the depression of middle-aged and older Chinese persons. Targeted measures should be adopted to promote SP and thereby improve mental health and promote healthy and active aging.
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