PAPER The influence of coping strategies on subsequent well‐being in older patients with cancer: A comparison with 2 control groups Abdelbari Baitar 1 | Frank Buntinx 2,3 | Tine De Burghgraeve 2 | Laura Deckx 2,4 | Dirk Schrijvers 1 | Hans Wildiers 5 | Marjan van den Akker 2,3 1 Department of Oncology, ZNA Middelheim, Antwerp, Belgium 2 Academic Centre for General Practice/ Department of Public Health and Primary Care, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium 3 Department of Family Medicine, School CAPHRI, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands 4 Primary Care Clinical Unit, Faculty of Medicine, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia 5 Department of General Medical Oncology, University Hospitals Leuven, Leuven, Belgium Correspondence Abdelbari Baitar, Department of Oncology, ZNA Middelheim, Antwerp, Belgium. Email: abdelbari.baitar@zna.be Funding information De Vlaamse Liga tegen Kanker, Grant/Award Number: 10482; The European Union/Interreg IV Grensregio Vlaanderen ‐ Nederland, Grant/ Award Number: IVA‐VLANED‐3.46 Abstract Objective: To evaluate dispositional coping strategies as predictors for changes in well‐being after 1 year in older patients with cancer (OCP) and 2 control groups. Methods: OCP were compared with 2 control groups: middle‐aged patients with cancer (MCP) (aging effect) and older patients without cancer (ONC) (cancer effect). Patients were interviewed shortly after a cancer diagnosis and 1 year later. Dispositional coping was measured with the Short Utrecht Coping List. For well‐being, we considered psychological well‐being (depression, loneliness, distress) and physical health (fatigue, ADL, IADL). Logistic regression analyses were performed to study baseline coping as predictor for subsequent well‐being while controlling for important baseline covariates. Results: A total of 1245 patients were included in the analysis at baseline: 263 OCP, 590 ONC, and 392 MCP. Overall, active tackling was employed most often. With the exception of pal- liative reacting, OCP utilized each coping strategy less frequently than MCP. At 1‐year follow‐up, 833 patients (66.9%) were interviewed. Active coping strategies (active tackling and seeking social support) predicted subsequent well‐being only in MCP. Avoidance coping strategies did not predict well‐being in any of the patient groups. Palliative reacting predicted distress in OCP; depression and dependency for ADL in MCP. Conclusions: Coping strategies influence subsequent well‐being in patients with cancer, but the impact is different in the age groups. Palliative reacting was the only coping strategy that predicted well‐being (ie, distress) in OCP and is therefore, especially in this population, a target for coping skill interventions. KEYWORDS cancer, coping, older patients, oncology, well‐being 1 | BACKGROUND Knowledge of effective and maladaptive coping strategies in relation to a cancer diagnosis is important in the development of interventions. Many studies have focused on the association between coping and well‐being in patients dealing with cancer. The large majority of these studies have a cross‐sectional design using different measures of coping. Although findings are not entirely consistent, active coping (eg, active tackling, seeking social support) in contrast to passive coping (eg, avoidance, palliative reacting) is thought to have a beneficial effect on both psychological and physical outcomes. 1,2 However, reciprocal relationships between coping and well‐being should be considered. 3,4 A small number of longitudinal studies have evaluated coping following a cancer diagnosis as a predictor for subsequent well‐being. 2,5-10 The find- ings of these studies are difficult to summarize as they vary for example in study aim and design, in the classification of coping, in health‐related outcomes, and in follow‐up time. Nonetheless, they demonstrated an influence of coping on subsequent well‐being. One study in patients with breast cancer even showed that avoidance coping used within 6 months after diagnosis predicted psychological well‐being 3 years later. 6 The current paper on coping and subsequent well‐being is part of the larger “Klimop” study. The primary aims of this study are to assess Received: 14 March 2017 Revised: 9 October 2017 Accepted: 7 November 2017 DOI: 10.1002/pon.4587 Psycho‐Oncology. 2017;1–7. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/pon 1