Impact of “four-step” death education on life quality and negative emotions in advanced esophageal cancer patients and families

Table 6 Negative emotions, mean ± SD

Index	SC group (n = 127)	FDE group (n = 108)	t/χ2	P value
Patient
SAS before	48.39 ± 5.75	48.36 ± 5.69	0.039	0.969
SAS after	42.63 ± 5.17	40.88 ± 5.03	2.626	0.009
SDS before	51.26 ± 5.53	51.28 ± 5.29	0.018	0.986
SDS after	48.87 ± 5.31	47.19 ± 5.27	2.423	0.016
Caregiver
SAS before	52.42 ± 5.51	52.12 ± 5.42	0.425	0.671
SAS after	45.19 ± 4.81	43.83 ± 4.72	2.187	0.030
SDS before	41.15 ± 4.95	41.21 ± 4.98	0.098	0.922
SDS after	38.78 ± 4.15	37.45 ± 4.26	2.422	0.016

SAS: Self-Rating Anxiety Scale; SDS: Self-Rating Depression Scale; SC: Standard care; FDE: Four-step death education.