Impact of psychosocial, behavioral and lifestyle factors on subjective cognitive complaints and perceived quality of life in a large cohort of Italian breast cancer patients

Thomas West; Corrado Cavallero; Rita Ceccherini; Silva Foladore; Daniele Generali; Francesco Versace; Bruna Scaggiante

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1015573

Impact of psychosocial, behavioral and lifestyle factors on subjective cognitive complaints and perceived quality of life in a large cohort of Italian breast cancer patients

Front Psychol. 2022 Nov 9:13:1015573. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1015573. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Thomas West¹, Corrado Cavallero², Rita Ceccherini³, Silva Foladore³, Daniele Generali^{4

5}, Francesco Versace⁶, Bruna Scaggiante²

Affiliations

¹ Lega Italiana per la Lotta contro i Tumori, Trieste, Italy.
² Department of Life Sciences, University of Trieste, Trieste, Italy.
³ Breast Cancer Unit, ASUGI, Trieste, Italy.
⁴ Department of Medical, Surgery and Health Sciences, University of Trieste, Trieste, Italy.
⁵ Breast Cancer Unit, ASST Cremona, Italy.
⁶ The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, United States.

Abstract

The impact of psychosocial and behavioral factors on Cancer Related Cognitive Impairment manifestations is still under debate. Study's purpose is to determine the prevalence rate of cancer related cognitive impairment in a cohort of Italian breast cancer patients and to evaluate the implication of specific behavioral factors. For these purposes, a total of 233 women (106 breast cancer patients and 127 age-matched controls without oncological diagnosis) completed a questionnaire investigating cognitive functionality (FACT-Cog v3.0), sociodemographic characteristics, clinical information, psychosocial and behavioral factors (cognitive reserve, sleep quality, dietary habits, physical activity). The results indicated a higher prevalence rate of subjective cognitive complaints in breast cancer patients (37%) compared to a representative sample of women in the same age group without an oncological diagnosis (p < 0.001). Moreover, breast cancer patients showed significantly lower levels of cognitive reserve (p < 0.05) and worse sleep quality (p < 0.01) compared to age-matched controls. Further analysis revealed that breast cancer patients reporting subjective cognitive complaints differed significantly from breast cancer patients without subjective cognitive complaints on measures of perceived cognitive abilities (p < 0.001) and on the impact of cognitive difficulties on perceived quality of life (p < 0.01). Future studies are needed to examine behavioral directed interventions to prevent subjective cognitive deficits in breast cancer patients.

Keywords: adjuvant therapies; breast cancer; cancer-related cognitive impairment; chemotherapy; cognitive reserve; sleep quality; subjective cognitive complaints.