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Characteristics and influencing factors of social isolation in patients with breast cancer: a latent profile analysis

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Abstract

Purpose

The goal of this study is to investigate the social isolation (SI) subtypes of patients with breast cancer (BC) and to explore its influencing factors.

Methods

A sample of 303 BC patients participated in the study from September to December, 2021. Latent profile analysis (LPA) was performed to identify SI clusters based on the three sub-scales of the Chinese version of the Social Anxiety Scale, the Chinese version of the Social Avoidance and Distress Scale, and the Chinese version of the Loneliness Scale.

Results

We found that SI can be divided into three categories: high-level (Class 1), middle-level (Class 2), and low-level (Class 3), accounting for 20.46%, 33.00%, and 46.54%, respectively. Compared to Class 3, Class 1, which had the lower average monthly income per family member (RMB) (< 3000: OR = 5.298, P = .021; 3000 ~ 5000: OR = 5.320, P = .018), was more likely to suffer from SI due to occupation (Laborer: OR = 12.023, P = .009). Surgery (OR = 14.138, P < .001; OR = 2.777, P = .020), chemotherapy (OR = 10.224, P = .001; OR = 3.545, P = .001); poorer family functioning (OR = .671, P < .001; OR = .801, P = .002), and lower levels of self-transcendence (OR = .806, P < .001; OR = .911, P < .001) were important influencing factors for SI in Class 1 and Class 2 compared to Class 3.

Conclusion

SI is classifiably heterogeneous among patients with BC. Strategies that identify characteristics of SI and give targeted intervention focusing on family functioning and improving self-transcendence levels contribute to the prevention of SI among patients with BC.

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Data Availability

The raw data supporting the conclusions of this article will be made available by the authors, without undue reservation. Go to contact the corresponding author.

Abbreviations

SI:

Social isolation

BC:

Breast cancer

LPA:

Latent Profile Analysis

C-SAS:

The Chinese version of the Social Anxiety Scale

C-SADS:

The Chinese version of the Social Avoidance and Distress Scale

C-LS:

The Chinese version of the Loneliness Scale

AIC:

Akaike Information Criterion

BIC:

Bayesian Information Criterion

aBIC:

Samplesize-adjusted Bayesian Information Criterion

LMR:

Lo-Mendell-Rubin Adjusted Likelihood Ratio Test

BLRT:

Bootstrap Likelihood Ratio Test

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Funding

This study was supported with grants of the Key Research and Development Plan of Shaanxi Province: General Projects—social development field (Grant 2022SF-371).

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Author notes

  1. Chunyan He, Chao Wu, and Yang He contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Nursing, Fourth Military Medical University, No.169 Changle West Road, Xi’an, 710032, Shaanxi, China

    Chunyan He, Chao Wu, Jiaran Yan, Yawei Lin, Yi Wan, Rongrong Liu, Hongjuan Lang & Baohua Cao

  2. Department of Psychology, Fourth Military Medical University, Shaanxi, China

    Yang He & Tianqi Yang

  3. Shaanxi Province People’s Hospital, Shaanxi, China

    Shuzhi Xue

  4. Tangdu Hospital Affiliated to Air Force Military Medical University, Shaanxi, China

    Fangning Gao

  5. Department of Aerospace Medicine, Fourth Military Medical University, Center for Aerospace Clinical Medicine, Shaanxi, China

    Wei Chang

Authors
  1. Chunyan He
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  2. Chao Wu
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  3. Yang He
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by Chunyan He, Yawei Lin, Tianqi Yang, Wei Chang, Fangning Gao, Shuzhi Xue, Yi Wan, and Rongrong Liu. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Chunyan He, Chao Wu, Yang He. Hongjuan Lang, Baohua Cao gave useful comments to the experiment and helped to revise the manuscript for several times, and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Hongjuan Lang or Baohua Cao.

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The research followed the ethical principles of the Declaration of Helsinki, and ethical approval (KY20192117-F-1) was obtained by the Ethics Committee of the First Affiliated Hospital of the Fourth Military Medical University.

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He, C., Wu, C., He, Y. et al. Characteristics and influencing factors of social isolation in patients with breast cancer: a latent profile analysis. Support Care Cancer 31, 363 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-023-07798-0

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