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The association between social support and smoking status in cancer survivors with frequent and infrequent mental distress: results from 10 US states, 2010

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Abstract

Purpose

This study examined the association between social support and smoking status among adult cancer survivors, with special emphasis on mental health differences using data from 10 US states.

Methods

Cross-sectional data from the 2010 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, Cancer Survivorship module on 8055 cancer survivors were analyzed. Sample weights were applied for the generalization of results to 2.6 million cancer survivors.

Results

In 2010, 15.6 % (418,700) were current, 38.4 % (1.03 million) former, and 46.0 % (1.2 million) never smokers. About 18.0 % of cancer survivors reported receiving the lowest level of social support and 12.1 % reported experiencing frequent mental distress in the past 30 days. Participants’ mean age at the time of the first cancer diagnosis was 51.0 (standard error (SE) = 0.33) and mean time since their diagnosis was 11.3 years (SE = 0.18). Compared to those with infrequent mental distress, cancer survivors with frequent mental distress were diagnosed at a younger age (45.0 vs. 51.8), more likely to be current smokers (36.8 vs. 12.7 %), and less likely to always receive social support they needed (33.4 vs. 56.3 %). Cancer survivors who received higher levels of social support were less likely to be current smokers than those who received the lowest level of social support they needed. Among cancer survivors who reported frequent mental distress, non-Hispanic blacks were more likely to be current smokers than non-Hispanic whites.

Conclusions

Rates of current smokers were lower among cancer survivors who received social support and reported infrequent mental distress.

Implications for Cancer Survivors

Psychosocial screening may help health care professional identify smokers with frequent mental distress who require more intensive smoking cessation interventions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Nursing; Bouve College of Health Sciences, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, USA

    Hermine Poghosyan

  2. College of Nursing and Health Sciences, University of Massachusetts Boston, 100 Morrissey Boulevard, Boston, MA, 02125, USA

    Sabreen A. Darwish & Sun S. Kim

  3. Phyllis F. Cantor Center for Research in Nursing and Patient Care Services, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA, USA

    Mary E. Cooley

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  1. Hermine Poghosyan
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  2. Sabreen A. Darwish
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  3. Sun S. Kim
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  4. Mary E. Cooley
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Correspondence to Hermine Poghosyan.

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Poghosyan, H., Darwish, S.A., Kim, S.S. et al. The association between social support and smoking status in cancer survivors with frequent and infrequent mental distress: results from 10 US states, 2010. J Cancer Surviv 10, 1078–1088 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11764-016-0551-6

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