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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Psychiatry
Sec. Public Mental Health
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2025.1481752

Stigma and self-perceived burden in postoperative liver cancer patients: the mediating role of financial toxicity

Provisionally accepted
Yue Zhang Yue Zhang 1Yiqin Cao Yiqin Cao 2Yanyan Wang Yanyan Wang 1Di Wang Di Wang 1Hongfang Ye Hongfang Ye 1*Chunlei Nie Chunlei Nie 3
  • 1 Nanjing Drum Tower Hospital, Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, China
  • 2 Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, China
  • 3 Southeast University, Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    To investigate the mediating effect of financial toxicity on stigma and self-perceived burden in patients with liver cancer after surgery. Methods Using a convenience sampling method, 236 postoperative liver cancer patients treated at a tertiary hospital in Nanjing from April 2024 to July 2024 were selected for the study. Questionnaires were administered, including a general information survey, the Social Impact Scale (SIS), the Self-Perceived Burden Scale for Cancer Patients (SPBS-CP) and the comprehensive score for financial toxicity-functional assessment of chronic illness therapy version 2 (COST-FACIT-V2). Data were analyzed using SPSS 22.0 for descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, and regression analysis. MPlus 8.3 was employed to examine the mediating effect of financial toxicity between stigma and self-perceived burden, and the Bootstrap method was used to test the significance of the mediation effect. Results The self-perceived burden score, stigma score and financial toxicity score were (31.72±7.52), (58.92±8.69) and (18.62±6.80). The financial toxicity and self-perceived burden were negatively correlated (r=-0.270,P=0.001). There was a positive correlation between stigma and self-perceived burden (r=0.586,P=0.000). financial toxicity partially mediated the relationship between stigma and self-perceived burden, accounting for 4.84% of the total effect. Conclusion Stigma can influence the self-perceived burden of liver cancer patients through financial toxicity. Clinical nurses should prioritize alleviating patients' stigma while also paying close attention to their financial toxicity status, providing feasible assistance in a timely manner to reduce their self-perceived burden.

    Keywords: liver cancer, Financial toxicity, stigma, Self-perceived burden, mediating effects

    Received: 16 Aug 2024; Accepted: 27 Jan 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Zhang, Cao, Wang, Wang, Ye and Nie. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Hongfang Ye, Nanjing Drum Tower Hospital, Nanjing, 210008, Jiangsu Province, China

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