A longitudinal cohort study on benefit finding evolution in Chinese women breast cancer survivals

Abstract

Even though the prevalence of benefit finding (BF) has been empirically shown to exist among breast cancer (BC) survivals, how does benefit finding evolve over time remains inadequately investigated. The objective of this cohort study is to examine how BF evolves over time among Chinese breast cancer survivals and determine the demographic, medical and psychosocial factors that can sustain BF increase over time. Participants were 486 women with different stages of breast cancer (stages I, II and III) followed from completion of primary treatment. Analysis were performed on the data collected during 2014–2019. During the assessment, each participant completed self-report questionnaires of characteristics and benefit finding at six time points with the interval of 6 months since BC diagnosis. The relationships between demographic, medical and psychosocial characteristics and benefit finding evolution over time were examined using mixed models. Participants reported mixed results on the evolving patterns of benefit finding: 28% reported an upward trend in BF scoring over time, 49% instead reported an downward trend, and the remaining 23% reported no obvious change. Our study has shown that some well-known covariates of benefit finding, e.g. education, income, and social support, are not associated with BF trends. In comparison, levels of spirituality and disease coping at diagnosis can more reliably predict BF evolution over time. Identifying the sustaining factors of benefit finding in the experience of breast cancer is the key to design effective psycho clinical solutions for patients’ long-term post-traumatic growth. As time goes by, breast cancer patients may experience less benefit finding. Our results strongly indicate that benefit finding can be sustained and increased by encouraging attempts at meaning-making and active disease coping during breast cancer treatment. To the best of our knowledge, this study is among the first to examine the evolution trends of benefit finding over time on breast cancer survivals and determine their psychosocial predictors in developing countries.

Post-traumatic growth trajectories among frontline healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic: A three-wave follow-up study in mainland China

“…The overall PTG trend of both the "Steady increase" and "Fluctuated rise" groups was increasing in the following 2 years despite the fluctuation in the second year (March 2021). Similar to previous studies on PTG and the development process of individuals diagnosed with a disease such as COVID-19 or cancer (19,27), this result proves that the relationship between traumatic events and PTG is not a single linear relationship. PTG changes over time with significant inter-individual heterogeneity, and this must be considered to better understand the response to prolonged adverse situations and is also crucial for hospital managers to improve the psychological health of HCWs.…”

Meaning in life, meaning-making and posttraumatic growth in cancer patients: Systematic review and meta-analysis

“…Some studies applied the Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy -Spiritual Well-being scale (FACIT-SP), a scale that includes meaning but assesses predominantly spirituality. These studies had to be excluded seeing as they considered meaning to either be a synonym or a component of spirituality (e.g., Park and Cho, 2017;Bi et al, 2021). The included studies applied different instruments to assess MiL, which can be a threat to the validity of the results obtained by the meta-analysis.…”

Spirituality as a Mediator Between Social Support and Benefit Finding Among Advanced Cancer Patients

“…Consequently, this study was limited in exploring whether the trajectory of social support, spirituality, and benefit finding varied across patients at different times. A longitudinal cohort study on benefit-finding evolution in 486 women with different stages of breast cancer showed that social support was not related to benefit-finding trends; in comparison, spirituality level at diagnosis was a more reliable predictor of benefit-finding evolution over time 50 . We recommend using longitudinal designs to examine how changes in social support and spirituality are linked to the evolution of benefit finding in patients with advanced cancer in future studies.…”

“…A longitudinal cohort study on benefit-finding evolution in 486 women with different stages of breast cancer showed that social support was not related to benefit-finding trends; in comparison, spirituality level at diagnosis was a more reliable predictor of benefit-finding evolution over time. 50 We recommend using longitudinal designs to examine how changes in social support and spirituality are linked to the evolution of benefit finding in patients with advanced cancer in future studies. Moreover, whether alternative models exist remains to be investigated in depth.…”