Quality of life and psychological distress in cancer survivors: The role of psycho‐social resources for resilience

Abstract

Objective: To examine the association between scores on the Protective Factors for Resilience Scale (PFRS) (as a measure of a person's psycho-social resources for resilience) and quality of life as well as symptoms of psychological distress for adult cancer survivors. Methods:In this cross-sectional study, 295 cancer survivors (59% female) provided background demographic information and completed the PFRS as well as measures of quality of life and psychological distress previously validated with cancer survivors.Most of the survivors were diagnosed with breast or prostate cancer.Results: Analysis of the data confirmed the factor structure for the PFRS for cancer survivors. While controlling for Body Mass Index and age, psycho-social resources were a unique and positive predictor for all quality of life measures as well as being a unique and negative predictor for the measures of psychological distress (depression, anxiety, and somatization). There was a high degree of consistency regarding these findings for male and female survivors. Conclusions:The PFRS is a brief and valid measure of psycho-social resources for resilience in adult cancer survivors, and scores on the PFRS proved to be a good predictor of quality of life and psychological distress of these cancer survivors. Using the PFRS to assess the psycho-social resources for resilience would be helpful when developing interventions to enhance the psychological health of adults as they adapt to a diagnosis of cancer.

Psychological resilience and health-related quality of life in Swedish women with newly diagnosed breast cancer

“…Breast cancer (BC) is the most prevalent cancer in women in the Western world [1]. Although the prognosis has dramatically improved, BC still causes considerable physical and psychological consequences for many women [2][3][4][5][6]. Receiving a BC diagnosis means emotional turmoil for the patient, although the reactions may differ due to, e.g., the personal stability of the individual [2].…”

“…Previous studies have shown that BC has a major impact on women's health-related quality of life (HRQoL) when measured by valid instruments, e.g., the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Questionnaire (EORTC-QLQ), the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy Breast Cancer (FACT-B) and the Short Form Health Survey (SF-36) [3]. As the incidence of BC increases and survivors live longer, HRQoL has become an increasingly important outcome measure for BC patients [2][3][4][5][6].…”

“…There has been a growing interest in determining the psychosocial factors that may enhance HRQoL in BC patients [4][5][6][7], and the positive impact of a supportive social network has been reported [8].…”

“…Additionally, psychological resilience, defined as the capacity to cope successfully with external stress, has been described as a protective factor associated with HRQoL in BC patients [4,6,[8][9][10].…”

“…Higher levels of psychological resilience do not make the patient resistant to distress, but they do help the patient adapt and recover when facing adversities [11,14]. In studies including BC patients, higher levels of psychological resilience have been found to be associated with higher levels of HRQoL [4,8,10]. The present study used the commonly used Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale 25 (CD-RISC25) [15][16].…”