Moderating effect of sense of coherence on the relationship between symptom distress and health-related quality of life in patients receiving cancer chemotherapy

Purpose This study is aimed at examining the buffering effect of sense of coherence (SOC) on symptom distress during cancer drug therapy, which thereby affects health-related quality of life (QoL), and obtaining suggestions for promoting supportive care. Methods We investigated health-related QoL (SF-8), symptom distress (using the Symptom Distress Scale (SDS)), and SOC (the SOC 13-item Scale) in 66 patients receiving adjuvant chemotherapy for non-small cell lung cancer. We employed descriptive statistics to seek the correlation of each variable; then, a hierarchical multiple regression analysis was conducted with SF-8 score as the dependent variable. Results Results showed that significant changes in bodily pain showed a buffering effect on the SDS and sense of comprehensibility ( β = − 0.658, p