The influence of marital intimacy on urinary and sexual symptom experience among patients with prostate cancer: a cross-sectional study.

BACKGROUND: Little is known about the influence of how patients with prostate cancer perceive emotional support from their spouses on their treatment-related symptoms.

AIMS: To explore the influence of marital intimacy on urinary and sexual symptoms.

METHODS: The research participants were 42 men diagnosed with prostate cancer recruited from a convenience sample from a university hospital in South Korea. The Expanded Prostate Cancer Index Composite, the Korean Marital Intimacy Scale, and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale were used to measure variables of interest.

RESULTS: In the hierarchical multiple regression analysis, higher marital intimacy was associated with more favorable symptom in the urinary domain. In the sexual domain, none of the models were significant, and no influence was found for marital intimacy.

CONCLUSIONS: Marital intimacy, measured as perceived emotional support from spouses, was found to positively influence only the experience of urinary symptoms among South Korean men with prostate cancer.