Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Health-related quality of life 18 months after breast cancer: comparison with the general population of Queensland, Australia

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Supportive Care in Cancer Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Goals of work

Health-related quality of life (HRQoL) was compared between urban breast cancer survivors (BCS) and the general female population in urban Queensland, and correlates were identified.

Materials and methods

HRQoL data were collected at 6, 12, and 18 months post-diagnosis from a population-based sample of 287 women, aged 74 years or younger, diagnosed with breast cancer in 2002. The urban comparison group was drawn from a population-based survey conducted in 2004 and included 675 women aged 30–74 years with no prior history of breast cancer. The Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-General questionnaire was used to measure HRQoL in both groups.

Main results

Younger (<50 years) BCS reported lower HRQoL at 6 months (mean, 80.2 vs 86.8) but were comparable to the general population by 12 months post-diagnosis (mean = 87.3). In contrast, HRQoL of older (50+ years) BCS at 6 months (mean = 87.1) was comparable to their general population peers (mean = 86.0) and was clinically better 18 months post-diagnosis (mean = 91.0). Compared with the general population, physical and emotional well-being among younger BCS was impaired at 6 months post-diagnosis (mean, 24.9 vs 21.0 and 21.0 vs 18.0, respectively) and did not improve over time for emotional well-being (mean = 18.8). These results persisted after adjustment for treatment-related factors, although receiving chemotherapy was an important correlate of HRQoL among younger BCS at 6 months post-diagnosis (−14.9).

Conclusions

This study not only shows that the HRQoL of BCS improves between 6 and 18 months post-diagnosis but also suggests that emotional well-being among younger BCS may benefit from targeted intervention.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (2004) Australia’s health 2004: the ninth biennial health report of the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, Canberra

    Google Scholar 

  2. Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, Australasian Association of Cancer Registries, NHMRC National Breast Cancer Centre (1999) Breast cancer in Australian women 1982–1996. Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, Canberra

    Google Scholar 

  3. Youlden D, Baade P (2005) Cancer prevalence in Queensland, 2002. Queensland Health and Queensland Cancer Fund, Brisbane

    Google Scholar 

  4. Youlden D, Baade P, Coory M (2005) Cancer survival in Queensland, 2002. Queensland Health and Queensland Cancer Fund, Brisbane

    Google Scholar 

  5. Institute of Medicine, National Research Council (2006) From Cancer Patient to Cancer Survivor: Lost in Transition. The National Academies Press, Washington DC

    Google Scholar 

  6. Gordon L, Battistutta D, Scuffham P, Tweeddale M, Newman B (2005) The impact of rehabilitation support services on health-related quality of life for women with breast cancer. Breast Cancer Res Treat 93(3):217–226

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. Collins L, Nash R, Round T, Newman B (2004) Perceptions of upper-body problems during recovery from breast cancer treatment. Supportive Care Cancer 12(2):106–113

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (1996) SF-36 interim norms for Australian data. Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, Canberra

    Google Scholar 

  9. Mishra G, Schofield M (1998) Norms for the physical and mental health component summary scores of the SF-36 for young, middle-aged and older Australian women. Qual Life Res 7(3):215–220

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Janda M, Gerstner N, Obermair A, Fuerst A, Wachter S, Dieckmann K, Potter R (2000) Quality of life changes during conformal radiation therapy for prostate carcinoma. Cancer 89(6):1322–1328

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Fayers P, Machin D (2000) Quality of life: assessment, analysis and interpretation. Wiley, Chichester

    Google Scholar 

  12. Round T, Hayes S, Newman B (2006) How do recovery advice and behavioural characteristics influence upper-body function and quality of life among women 6 months after breast cancer diagnosis? Supportive Care Cancer 14(1):22–29

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. DiSipio T, Rogers C, Newman B, Whiteman D, Eakin E, Fritschi L, Aitken J (2006) The Queensland Cancer Risk Study: behavioural risk factor results. Aust N Z J Public Health 30:375–382

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  14. Brucker P, Yost K, Cashy J, Webster K, Cella D (2005) General population and cancer patient norms for the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-General (FACT-G). Eval Health Prof 28:192–211

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  15. Holzner B, Kemmler G, Cella D, De Paoli C, Meraner V, Kopp M, Greil R, Fleischhacker W, Sperner-Unterweger B (2004) Normative data for functional assessment of cancer therapy: general scale and its use for the interpretation of quality of life scores in cancer survivors. Acta Oncologica 43:153–160

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  16. Cella D (1997) FACIT Manual Version 4. Center on Outcomes, Research and Education, Evanston Northwestern Healthcare and Northwestern University

  17. Cella D, Tulsky D, Gray G, Sarafian B, Linn E, Bonomi A, Silberman M, Yellen S, Winicour P, Brannon J et al (1993) The Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy scale: development and validation of the general measure. J Clin Oncol 11(3):570–579

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  18. Conroy T, Mercier M, Bonneterre J, Luporsi E, Lefebvre J, Lapeyre M, Puyraveau M, Schraub S (2004) French version of FACT-G: validation and comparison with other cancer-specific instruments. Eur J Cancer 40(15):2243–2252

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  19. Winstead-Fry P, Schultz A (1997) Psychometric analysis of the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-General (FACT-G) scale in a rural sample. Cancer 79(12):2446–2452

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  20. SPSS (2004) Statistical Package for the Social Sciences, version 13.0 for Windows. SPSS, Chicago (IL)

    Google Scholar 

  21. Australian Bureau of Statistics (2004) 2001 Census of population and housing: Australia in profile: a regional analysis. ABS, Canberra

    Google Scholar 

  22. Petrie K, Buick D, Weinman J, Booth R (1999) Positive effects of illness reported by myocardial infarction and breast cancer patients. J Psychosom Res 47(6):537–543

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  23. Dow K, Ferrell B, Leigh S, Ly J, Gulasekaram P (1996) An evaluation of the quality of life among long-term survivors of breast cancer. Breast Cancer Res Treat 39(3):261–273

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  24. Australian Bureau of Statistics (2006) National Health Survey: summary of results, 2004–05. ABS, Canberra

    Google Scholar 

  25. Michelson H, Bolund C, Nilsson B, Brandberg Y (2000) Health-related quality of life measured by the EORTC QLQ-C30: Reference values from a large sample of the Swedish population. Acta Oncologica 39(4):477–84

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  26. Schwartz C, Sprangers M (1999) Methodological approaches for assessing response shift in longitudinal health-related quality-of-life research. Soc Sci Med 48(11):1531–1548

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  27. Kornblith A, Powell M, Regan M, Bennett S, Kransner C, Moy B, Younger J, Goodman A, Berkowitz R, Winer E (2007) Long-term psychosocial adjustment of older vs younger survivors of breast and endometrial cancer. Psycho-Oncology 16(10):895–903

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  28. Helgeson V, Snyder P, Seltman H (2004) Psychological and physical adjustment to breast cancer over 4 years: Identifying distinct trajectories of change. Health Psychology 23(1):3–15

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  29. Vacek P, Winstead-Fry P, Secker-Walker R, Hooper G, Plante D (2003) Factors influencing quality of life in breast cancer survivors. Qual Life Res 12(5):527–537

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  30. Maggard M, O’Connell J, Lane K, Liu J, Etzioni D, Ko C (2003) Do young breast cancer patients have worse outcomes? J Surg Res 113(1):109–113

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  31. Sammarco A (2001) Psychosocial stages and quality of life of women with breast cancer. Cancer Nursing 24(4):272–277

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  32. Avis N, Crawford S, Manuel J (2004) Psychosocial problems among younger women with breast cancer. Psycho-Oncology 13(5):295–308

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  33. Ganz P, Rowland J, Desmond K, Meyerowitz B, Wyatt G (1998) Life after breast cancer: Understanding women’s health-related quality of life and sexual functioning. J Clin Oncol 16(2):501–514

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  34. Thewes B, Butow P, Girgis A, Pendlebury S (2004) The psychosocial needs of breast cancer survivors; a qualitative study of the shared and unique needs of younger versus older survivors. Psycho-Oncology 13:177–189

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  35. Connell S, Patterson C, Newman B (2006) Issues and concerns of young Australian women with breast cancer. Supportive Care Cancer 14(5):419–426

    Article  Google Scholar 

  36. Arndt V, Merx H, Sturmer T, Stegmaier C, Ziegler H, Brenner H (2004) Age-specific detriments to quality of life among breast cancer patients one year after diagnosis. Eur J Cancer 40(5):673–680

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  37. Schou I, Ekeberg O, Sandvik L, Hjermstad M, Ruland C (2005) Multiple predictors of health-related quality of life in early stage breast cancer: data from a year follow-up study compared with the general population. Qual Life Res 14:1813–1823

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  38. Holzner B, Bode R, Hahn E, Cella D, Kopp M, Sperner-Unterweger B, Kemmler G (2006) Equating EORTC QLQ-C30 and FACT-G scores and its use in oncological research. Eur J Cancer 42(18):3169–3177

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

This work was supported in part by a PhD scholarship from the National Breast Cancer Foundation. The Pulling Through Study was funded by a National Breast Cancer Foundation research project grant, and the Queensland Cancer Risk Study was funded by The Cancer Council Queensland.

Disclaimer

The funding sources for this study had no role in collection, analysis, or interpretation of the data or in the decision to seek publication.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Public Health,Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation, Queensland University of Technology, Victoria Park Road, Kelvin Grove, Queensland, 4059, Australia

    Tracey DiSipio, Sandi Hayes, Beth Newman & Monika Janda

Authors
  1. Tracey DiSipio
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Sandi Hayes
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Beth Newman
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Monika Janda
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Tracey DiSipio.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

DiSipio, T., Hayes, S., Newman, B. et al. Health-related quality of life 18 months after breast cancer: comparison with the general population of Queensland, Australia. Support Care Cancer 16, 1141–1150 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-007-0392-y

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-007-0392-y

Keywords

Search

Navigation