Psychosocial Health of Disease-Free Breast Cancer Survivors Compared with Matched Non-cancer Controls

• Published in: Cancer research and treatment Vol. 51; no. 1; pp. 178 - 186
• Main Authors: Park, Boyoung, Lee, Moo Hyun, Kong, Sun-Young, Lee, Eun Sook
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Korea (South) Korean Cancer Association 01.01.2019; 대한암학회
• Subjects: Breast Neoplasms - psychology; Cancer Survivors - psychology; Case-Control Studies; Disease-Free Survival; Female; Healthy Lifestyle; Humans; Middle Aged; Original; Random Allocation; Socioeconomic Factors; 의약학; Community setting; Breast cancer survivors; Psychosocial Well-being Index-Short Form; Psychosocial health
• ISSN: 1598-2998; 2005-9256; 2005-9256
• DOI: 10.4143/crt.2017.585

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. 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. 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). The disease-free breast cancer survivors resuming daily life demonstrated better psychosocial health status compared to matched non-cancer controls.