Psychological Resilience and Health-Related Quality of Life in Swedish Women with Newly Diagnosed Breast Cancer

Åsa Mohlin; Ulrika Axelsson; Pär-Ola Bendahl; Carl Borrebaeck; Cecilia Hegardt; Per Johnsson; Ingalill Rahm Hallberg; Lisa Rydén

doi:10.2147/CMAR.S268774

Psychological Resilience and Health-Related Quality of Life in Swedish Women with Newly Diagnosed Breast Cancer

Cancer Manag Res. 2020 Nov 24:12:12041-12051. doi: 10.2147/CMAR.S268774. eCollection 2020.

Authors

Åsa Mohlin^{1

2}, Ulrika Axelsson³, Pär-Ola Bendahl⁴, Carl Borrebaeck³, Cecilia Hegardt⁴, Per Johnsson⁵, Ingalill Rahm Hallberg⁶, Lisa Rydén^{7

8}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Clinical Sciences Lund, Division of Medical History, Lund University, Lund 221 84, Sweden.
² Healthcare Center Laröd, Helsingborg 252 86, Sweden.
³ Department of Immunotechnology and CREATE Health Translational Cancer Center, Lunds University, Lund 223 81, Sweden.
⁴ Department of Clinical Sciences Lund, Division of Oncology and Pathology, Lund University, Lund 223 81, Sweden.
⁵ Department of Psychology, Lund University, Lund 221 00, Sweden.
⁶ Department of Health Sciences, Lund University, Lund 221 00, Sweden.
⁷ Department of Clinical Sciences Lund, Division of Surgery, Lund University, Lund 223 81, Sweden.
⁸ Department of Surgery, Skåne University Hospital, Malmö, 214 28, Sweden.

Abstract

Purpose: Psychological resilience appears to be an important influencing factor in various aspects of health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in a context of adversity, eg, being informed of a cancer diagnosis. The purpose was to investigate psychological resilience and HRQoL in Swedish women with newly diagnosed breast cancer in relation to demographic and clinicopathological characteristics.

Methods: A population-based cross-sectional study was conducted including 517 women with breast cancer in the South Swedish Health Care Region. Participants were enrolled at the time of consultation for the diagnosis. Psychological resilience was assessed with the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale 25 (CD-RISC25), and HRQoL was assessed with the Short Form Health Survey. The participants responded to questions regarding demographic variables. Clinicopathological data were collected from the Swedish National Quality Register for Breast Cancer.

Results: The mean score for psychological resilience was 70.6, identifying 15% of included patients with a score lower than 58 (-1 standard deviation). The study cohort had significantly lower mean scores for several aspects of HRQoL compared with Swedish normative data. Regression analyses demonstrated that psychological resilience was significantly associated with all domains of HRQoL after adjustment for demographic and clinicopathological factors.

Conclusion: Higher levels of psychological resilience were significantly related to higher levels of HRQoL in Swedish women with newly diagnosed breast cancer and no modifying factor was identified. The assessment of psychological resilience at the time of breast cancer diagnosis might allow for early identification of women in need of more intense psychosocial support. Future studies are needed to identify a clinically relevant threshold of the CD-RISC25.

Keywords: CD-RISC25; Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale 25; SF-36; Short Form Health Survey; breast cancer; health-related quality of life; psychological resilience.

Grants and funding

The study was supported by grants from the Birgit Rausing Donation, the Faculty of Medicine, Lund University, the Mats Paulsson Foundation, the Mrs Berta Kamprad Foundation, The Biltema Foundation and the CREATE Health Cancer Center.