Psychosocial Health of Disease-Free Breast Cancer Survivors Compared with Matched Non-cancer Controls.
- Author:
Boyoung PARK
1
;
Moo Hyun LEE
;
Sun Young KONG
;
Eun Sook LEE
Author Information
- Publication Type:Original Article
- Keywords: Breast cancer survivors; Psychosocial health; Psychosocial Well-being Index-Short Form; Community setting
- MeSH: Breast Neoplasms*; Breast*; Cohort Studies; Diagnosis; Drinking; Education; Family Characteristics; Female; Health Behavior; Humans; Obesity; Prevalence; Smoke; Smoking; Survivors*
- From:Cancer Research and Treatment 2019;51(1):178-186
- CountryRepublic of Korea
- Language:English
- Abstract: PURPOSE: The present study investigated the psychosocial health of disease-free breast cancer survivors who receive health examinations compared to matched non-cancer controls in a community setting. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We used baseline data from the Health Examinee cohort, which is composed of subjects participating in health. The disease-free breast cancer survivors were defined as those who were ≥ 2 years from initial diagnosis of breast cancer who had completed treatment. Females without a history of cancer were randomly selected at 1:4 ratio by 5-year age groups, education, and household income as a comparison group. We analyzed results from the Psychosocial Well-being Index-Short Form (PWI-SF) as a psychosocial health measurement. RESULTS: A total of 347 survivors of breast cancer and 1,388 matched controls were included. Total scores on the PWI-SF were lower in breast cancer survivors than matched non-cancer controls (p=0.006), suggesting a lower level of psychosocial stress in breast cancer survivors. In comparison to the control group, prevalence of drinking, smoking and obesity were lower, while exercising for ≥ 150 min/wk was higher in breast cancer survivors (p < 0.05). These findings suggest that breast cancer survivors have better health behaviors than their noncancer controls. After adjusting for other sociodemographic variables, breast cancer survivors were 36% less likely to be included in the stress group (odds ratio, 0.64; 95% confidence interval, 0.42 to 0.98). CONCLUSION: The disease-free breast cancer survivors resuming daily life demonstrated better psychosocial health status compared to matched non-cancer controls.
