Association between family functioning and delay in seeking medical care of Chinese bladder cancer patients: the mediating effect of coping styles

Purpose To explore the mechanism by which coping styles of bladder cancer patients influence the relationship between family functioning and delay in seeking medical care. This knowledge could provide a basis for developing interventions to address delayed medical care for patients with bladder cancer. Methods A total of 312 patients with bladder cancer were investigated using the General Information Questionnaire, Questionnaire on the patient’s medical condition, the Medical Coping Style Scale, and the Family Functioning Rating Scale. Result The median delay time for bladder cancer patients was 44.5 days, and the family functioning score at (124.50 ± 24.86), with the face dimension score at (1.66 ± 0.53), the recuse dimension score at (2.48 ± 0.66), and the yield dimension score at (1.34 ± 0.57). The total score of family functioning and each dimension were positively correlated with the delay time of medical care, the coping styles (face) were negatively correlated with the delay time of medical care, and the coping styles (recuse and yield) were positively correlated with it. The mediating effect model showed that family function had an indirect effect through coping styles (face, recuse, and yield), with a total effect of 0.369, and coping styles (face, recuse, and yield) had a mediating effect on the delay time of medical care (indirect effect sizes were 0.123, 0.096, and 0.114, respectively). Conclusion The coping styles of patients with bladder cancer play a mediating role between family functioning and the delay in seeking medical care. Medical staff should encourage bladder cancer patients to adopt a proactive coping approach and improve the support capacity of bladder cancer patients’ families to effectively shorten the delay time.