Fatigue, anxiety and depression overrule the role of oncological treatment in predicting self-reported health complaints in women with breast cancer compared to healthy controls.
BACKGROUND
Women with breast cancer often attribute their health problems as side effects caused by oncological treatments. The aim of the study was to examine and compare self-reported health complaints (SHC) in postmenopausal patients with breast cancer to healthy controls.


METHOD
Women with breast cancer (N = 196) filled in 5 questionnaires 1-2 years after surgery; SHC Inventory, Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Endocrine Subscale (FACT-ES), Fatigue - Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Fatigue subscale (FACIT-F), Fatigue Visual Analog Scale (Fatigue VAS), and Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS). Controls comprised 101 blood donors who reported on the questionnaires except for HADS. Bonferroni adjustment and p < 0.0017 was considered statistically significant for SHC Inventory, p < 0.05 for the remaining questionnaires.


RESULTS
The patients, mean age 58.0 (SD 9.5), reported significantly more self-reported health complaints, whereof 6 of 29 complaints were significantly elevated compared to the controls, mean age 57.0 (SD 5.8) (p < 0.001). HADS scores in patients fell into normal range, mean 6.3 (SD 5.7). A subgroup of 48 patients experienced more frequent and severe symptoms in all the questionnaires compared to the remaining 148 patients, and the 101 controls. Among the patients, fatigue, anxiety and depression explained 49% of the total variance in self-reported health complaints (p ≤ 0.001).


CONCLUSION
Most women with breast cancer (76%) reported health complaints equal to the healthy controls. Fatigue, anxiety and depression, not oncological treatments, were significant predictors for the complaints.
['Hagen|Kari Britt|KB|', 'Aas|Turid|T|', 'Kvaløy|Jan Terje|JT|', 'Eriksen|Hege R|HR|', 'Søiland|Håvard|H|', 'Lind|Ragna|R|']
D000368:Aged D001007:Anxiety D001943:Breast Neoplasms D016022:Case-Control Studies D003863:Depression D015914:Estrogen Replacement Therapy D005221:Fatigue D005260:Female D006304:Health Status D019584:Hot Flashes D006801:Humans D007508:Irritable Mood D008875:Middle Aged D017698:Postmenopause D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
Oncological treatments Self-reported health complaints Breast cancer Postmenopausal symptoms