The association of health-related quality of life with unmet supportive care needs and sociodemographic factors in low-income Latina breast cancer survivors: a single-centre pilot study

Abstract

Purpose: Determine correlations between health-related quality of life (HRQOL), supportive care need, and sociodemographic factors in low-income Latina breast cancer survivors.

Methods: A descriptive, survey-based, cross-sectional study was completed with 102 low-income Latina breast cancer survivors at a major public safety net hospital. Correlation coefficients were calculated between number of unmet supportive care needs (per Supportive Care Needs Survey), HRQOL (per SF-36), and sociodemographic variables.

Results: Unmet supportive care needs were correlated with lower HRQOL in all domains (r > −0.40; p < 0.0001). Lower income was significantly associated with lower HRQOL (r > 0.21; p < 0.05) and more supportive care needs (r = −0.22; p < 0.05). Multimorbidity was significantly associated with decreased HRQOL (r > −0.23; p < 0.05) and greater supportive care need (r = 0.19; p < 0.05).

Conclusions: Identifying and addressing unmet supportive care needs may improve HRQOL in low-income Latina breast cancer survivors. Rehabilitation interventions that address barriers to accessing supportive care related to low SES and multimorbidity may also improve health outcomes in this population. The dual effect of multimorbidity on both quality of life and level of supportive care need in this population warrants further investigation.

Implications for rehabilitation

• Screening for unmet supportive care needs may be an important step in improving health-related quality of life during cancer rehabilitation.

• Challenges accompanying multimorbidity and lower socioeconomic status may prevent low-income cancer patients from accessing adequate supportive care.

• Rehabilitation interventions for socioeconomically disadvantaged cancer survivors should compensate for both socioeconomic status and the presence of comorbidities in order to reduce disparities in quality of life during survivorship.

Keywords:

• Breast neoplasms
• Hispanic Americans
• socioeconomic factors
• quality of life
• comorbidity
• survivors

Acknowledgements

The authors thank Gabrielle Granados and Karina Cordova for their invaluable contributions to this work.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by a research grant from the California Foundation for Occupational Therapy.