Pre-diagnostic “chronic life stressors” and their association with breast cancer outcomes: A cross-sectional observation study
Keywords:
Breast cancer; Chronic life stressors; Holmes and Rahe stress scale; Cancer outcomesAbstract
Background: Breast cancer is widely studied for its psychosomatic aspects owing to its high prevalence among women and the impact of chronic life stressors on its development and outcomes.
Aims and Objectives: This study aimed to evaluate the association between previous chronic stressors and breast cancer diagnosis, duration of presentation to a health-care facility stage at presentation, tumor profile, treatment compliance, treatment-induced complications, and outcomes.
Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional observational study included 200 breast cancer patients. Patients were interviewed post-treatment to collect data on marital status, socioeconomic status, occupation, education, and emotional events, using the Holmes and Rahe stress scale. Scores were categorized as low-, medium-, or high-risk for disease development.
Results: Low-level chronic stress was the most prevalent in patients with stage I disease (93%), followed by stage II (87%), stage III (72%), and stage IV (52%). Moderate-level chronic stress increased with the disease stage, being the lowest in stage I (7%) and the highest in stage IV (48%), and this was significant (P=0.01). The median duration from symptom recognition to presentation was <4 weeks in 81–62% of patients with low and moderate stress, respectively. For those with moderate chronic stress, 62% presented within 4 weeks and 38% took >4 weeks, with a significant P=0.01.
Conclusion: Recognizing and addressing pre-diagnostic chronic stress is crucial for breast cancer management because it influences the cancer stage at diagnosis and the time of health-care presentation. Integrating psychosocial support into cancer care can improve treatment effectiveness and patient well-being.
Downloads
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2024 Asian Journal of Medical Sciences
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- The journal holds copyright and publishes the work under a Creative Commons CC-BY-NC license that permits use, distribution and reprduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited and is not used for commercial purposes. The journal should be recognised as the original publisher of this work.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).