Evaluation of the Effect of Psychological Resilience on Anxiety in Patients with Diabetic Retinopathy Through the Mediating Effect of Perceived Stress: A Moderated Mediation Model.

Objective: To investigate the anxiety status of Chinese patients with diabetic retinopathy (DR) and its relationship with psychological resilience and perceived stress.

Methods: A sampling method was used to select 606 DR patients, and the 10-item Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC-10), Perceived Stress Scale short-form (PSS-10), and General Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7) were used for the survey. We used SPSS 26.0 to analyse the data and employed PROCESS v4.1 for the mediating effect test.

Results: The incidence of anxiety in DR patients was approximately 53.63%, with psychological resilience (CD-RISC-10 average=27.51±8.32) and perceived stress (PSS-10 average=15.97±6.54). Anxiety was negatively correlated with psychological resilience (r=-0.569, P<0.01) and positively correlated with perceived stress (r=0.638, P<0.01). Additionally, psychological resilience was negatively correlated with perceived stress (r=-0.681, P<0.01). Perceived stress had a positive predictive effect on anxiety (total effect = -0.327, 95% bootstrap CI = -0.363 to -0.291), and it played a mediating role in the relationship between psychological resilience and anxiety, with a mediating effect size of 54.13%.

Conclusion: Psychological resilience and perceived stress directly or indirectly affect anxiety, Perceived stress moderates the relationship between psychological resilience and anxiety as a mediating variable. By analyzing this psychological mechanism, this study provides a new perspective for applying psychology to chronic diseases and a scientific basis for medical staff to develop targeted psychological intervention measures.