Socioeconomic disparities of depressive symptoms and cytokines in hepatocellular carcinoma.

Objective: To examine the associations among socioeconomic factors, depressive symptoms, and cytokines in patients diagnosed with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).

Methods: A total of 266 patients diagnosed with HCC were administered a battery of questionnaires including a sociodemographic questionnaire and the Center for Epidemiologic StudiesDepression (CES-D) scale. Blood samples were collected to assess serum levels of cytokines using Luminex. Descriptive statistics, Mann-Whitney U, Kruskal-Wallis, linear regression, and Bonferroni corrections were performed to test the hypotheses.

Results: Of the 266 patients, 24% reported depressive symptoms in the clinical range (CES-D ≥ 22). Females had higher CES-D score than males (Mann-Whitney U = 7135, P = .014, P  = .028). Being unemployed/disabled (Kruskal-Wallis = 14.732, P = .001, P  = .005) was found to be associated with higher depressive symptoms in males but not in females. Serum level of IL-2 (Kruskal-Wallis = 17.261, P = .001, P  = .005) were found to be negatively associated with education level. Gender (β = .177, P = .035), income (β = -.252, P = .004), whether the patient's income met their basic needs (β = .180, P = .035), and IL-1β (β = -.165, P = .045) independently predicted depressive symptoms and together explained 19.4% of variance associated with depressive symptoms.

Conclusions: Sociodemographic and socioeconomic factors were predictive of inflammation and depressive symptoms. Recommendations include the development of gender-targeted interventions for patients diagnosed with HCC who have low socioeconomic status (SES) and may suffer from depressive symptoms.