Abstract P6-12-07: Metastatic breast cancer collateral damage project: Associations of disease-specific concerns and experiences with psychological health, illness management, and health behaviors
Authors: Williamson T , Stanton A , Clague DeHart J , Jorge A , Eshraghi L , Cooper Ortner H , Love S 
Published: February 2018

Rationale: Research has identified risk and protective factors that predict health and well-being in adults with breast cancer, but this work has been focused largely on women with early-stage disease. Metastatic breast cancer (MBC) patients report worse psychological health and poorer quality of life compared to those with early-stage breast cancer. We investigated whether a newly developed measure of MBC-specific concerns and experiences, the Survey of Health, Impact, Needs, and Experiences (SHINE), is associated with psychological health, illness management, and health behaviors in a sample of MBC patients.

Method: SHINE includes 36 items capturing the experience of MBC, including verbatim statements from previously collected crowdsourcing data. Participants (N=515) were recruited from Dr. Susan Love Research Foundation's Army of Women® and other advocacy organizations. Participants also completed measures of psychological health (i.e., depression, anxiety), illness management (i.e., self-efficacy for managing medications/treatments and symptoms), and health behaviors (i.e., sleep, degree of moderate physical activity). The nine SHINE subscales, along with age, marital status, financial status, children, metastatic site location(s), and current medical treatment(s), were entered as simultaneous predictors in a multivariate regression. Psychological health, illness management, and health behaviors were entered as dependent variables in separate models.

Results: With demographic and medical variables controlled, MBC-specific concerns were associated significantly with depressive symptoms (ΔR2=.38), anxiety (ΔR2=.37), efficacy for medication/treatment management (ΔR2=.08), efficacy for symptom management (ΔR2=.32), sleep disruption (ΔR2 =.10), and physical activity (ΔR2=.17), with all ps&lt;.01. Specifically, higher depressive symptoms and anxiety were associated greater mortality/uncertainty concerns (ps&lt;.01), greater social isolation/withdrawal (ps&lt;.01), and higher self-concept disruption (ps&lt;.02). Anxiety was uniquely associated with greater financial concerns (p&lt;.02), whereas depression was uniquely associated with fewer positive experiences (p&lt;.05). Higher self-efficacy for managing symptoms was related to more positive experiences, higher mortality concerns, and more self-concept and activity disruption (ps&lt;.01), whereas higher efficacy for managing medications/treatments was associated with lower social isolation/withdrawal (p&lt;.03). More sleep disruption was associated with higher concern for others (p&lt;.05), and less physical activity was associated with more activity disruption (p&lt;.01).

Conclusions: After controlling for demographic and medical characteristics, MBC-specific concerns were related significantly to psychological health, self-efficacy for illness management, and health behaviors. Mortality/uncertainty concerns, social isolation/withdrawal, and self-concept disruption were especially important correlates of depressive symptoms, anxiety, and MBC-related self-efficacy. Higher concern for others was related to more sleep disruption. Approaches that address these MBC-specific concerns and promote positive experiences may be beneficial for patients.

Citation Format: Williamson T, Stanton A, Clague DeHart J, Jorge A, Eshraghi L, Cooper Ortner H, Love S. Metastatic breast cancer collateral damage project: Associations of disease-specific concerns and experiences with psychological health, illness management, and health behaviors [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 2017 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium; 2017 Dec 5-9; San Antonio, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2018;78(4 Suppl):Abstract nr P6-12-07.