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Psychosocial issues and quality of life of parenting partners of young women with breast cancer

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Abstract

Purpose

Data are lacking about the association between quality of life (QOL) and psychosocial issues of partners of young women with breast cancer who co-parent dependent children.

Methods

We conducted a cross-sectional analysis of partners of women with breast cancer diagnosed at age ≤ 40. Among those partners reporting at least one dependent child under 18 years old at the time of diagnosis, we used multiple linear regression to examine associations between partner QOL and sociodemographic and psychosocial factors, and the patient’s cancer stage and time since diagnosis.

Results

Of the 219 parenting partners, all identified as male with a median age of 44 years; 96% (204/213) reported working full-time at the time of the survey. Fifty-four percent endorsed behaviors indicating maladaptive coping. In adjusted analyses, less than full-time employment (β =  − 8.76; 95% CI =  − 17.37, − 0.14), younger age (β =  − 0.35; 95% CI =  − 0.069, − 0.02), greater parenting concerns (β = 0.56; 95% CI = 0.36, 0.75), clinically relevant anxiety symptoms (β = 13.79; 95% CI = 10.24, 17.35), lower post-traumatic growth score (β =  − 0.33; 95% CI =  − 0.51, − 0.16), lower social support (β =  − 0.21; 95% CI =  − 0.29, − 0.12), lower sexual satisfaction (β =  − 0.40; 95% CI =  − 0.62, − 0.19), and breast cancer stages 3 (β = 7.61; 95% CI = 0.19, 15.02) and 4 (β = 12.63; 95% CI = 1.91, 23.34), when compared to stage 0, were associated with lower partner QOL.

Conclusion

Parenting partners of young women with breast cancer have substantial unmet psychosocial needs. Interventions are needed to enhance QOL and promote adaptive coping for this population.

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Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author. The data are not publicly available due to privacy or ethical restrictions.

Code availability

The primary authors have full control of all codes and agree to allow the journal to review the codes if requested.

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Funding

Susan G. Komen (AHP); Breast Cancer Research Foundation (AHP); The Pink Agenda (AHP).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, 450 Brookline Avenue, Boston, MA, 02215, USA

    Nancy A. Borstelmann, Tamryn F. Gray, Shari Gelber, Shoshana Rosenberg, Yue Zheng, Meghan Meyer & Ann H. Partridge

  2. Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA

    Tamryn F. Gray, Shoshana Rosenberg, Steven Come & Ann H. Partridge

  3. Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, USA

    Kathryn J. Ruddy

  4. Stanford University Medical Center, Stanford, CA, USA

    Lidia Schapira

  5. Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, MA, USA

    Steven Come

  6. University of Colorado, Aurora, CO, USA

    Virginia Borges

  7. Simmons College School of Social Work, Boston, MA, USA

    Tamara Cadet & Peter Maramaldi

  8. Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA

    Peter Maramaldi

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  1. Nancy A. Borstelmann
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Contributions

N.A.B. provided the initial conceptualization for and writing of the original draft of the manuscript. A.H.P. provided funding acquisition for this study. N.A.B., T.F.G., S.M.R., S.G., Y.Z., and A.H.P. had a significant contribution to the conceptualization of the cohort, methodology, acquisition of the data investigation, analysis, and manuscript writing. M.M. provided project management for the study and contributed to data acquisition. K.J.R., L.S., S.C., V.B., T.C., P.M. contributed to review and editing. N.A.B., T.F.G., and A.H.P. were responsible for the final manuscript edits.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Nancy A. Borstelmann.

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Ethics approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional review board committee (IRB) and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. The study was approved by IRBs of the Dana-Farber Harvard Cancer Center, Simmons University, and 12 other participating sites (Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Cape Cod Hospital, Faulkner Hospital, Lowell General Hospital, Massachusetts General Hospital, Mayo Clinic, Newton-Wellesley Hospital, North Shore Cancer Center Salem, South Shore Hospital, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, and University of Colorado Hospital).

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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The authors affirm that human subject research participants provided informed consent for publication of their deidentified data.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Nancy A. Borstelmann and Tamryn F. Gray are co-first authors for this article.

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Borstelmann, N.A., Gray, T.F., Gelber, S. et al. Psychosocial issues and quality of life of parenting partners of young women with breast cancer. Support Care Cancer 30, 4265–4274 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-022-06852-7

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