• Alice Anderson, Angela Starkweather, Xiaomei Cong, Kyounghae Kim, Dena Schulman-Green, Michelle Judge, Wanli Xu, and Yiming Zhang.
• University of Connecticut School of Nursing, Storrs, Conneticut. Electronic address: alice.anderson@uconn.edu.
• Pain Manag Nurs. 2022 Aug 1; 23 (4): 486-493.

BackgroundCancer pain prevalence remains high, and variance in self-efficacy for managing pain may explain why some patients experience greater pain severity.AimThis study explored perceptions of self-efficacy in relation to cancer pain severity and treatment related characteristics.MethodA descriptive cross-sectional survey was administered to 50 cancer outpatients. Data analysis involved descriptive and correlational statistical analyses.ResultsSelf-efficacy to manage pain was significantly associated with time since diagnosis and ability to deal with frustration, and inversely associated with pain severity level. A large proportion of patients reported low satisfaction self-managing their pain. Most patients reported independently self-managing their cancer pain; however, satisfaction with pain management was low for a large proportion of patients. Time since cancer diagnosis and ability to deal with frustration due to cancer pain were positively associated with cancer pain self-efficacy, whereas pain self-efficacy had a significant inverse correlation with cancer pain severity.ConclusionsEnhancing self-efficacy to self-manage under-treated cancer pain is important with implications for improving pain outcomes and quality of life. Further investigation on unmet needs and preferences for cancer pain self-management support is warranted.Copyright © 2021. Published by Elsevier Inc.

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