Abstract
Background
Optimism, coping, and resilience may be independent predictors of anxiety, distress, depression, or health-related quality of life (HRQOL) in women with breast cancer.
Methods
Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-analysis (PRISMA) searches of PubMed, PsycINFO, and Google Scholar databases from January 1, 1990, to April 30, 2018, for articles (i.e., studies) determining the impact of optimism, coping, or resilience on anxiety, distress, depression, or HRQOL in women with breast cancer. Articles included only those that measured optimism by the life orientation test (LOT) or LOT-revised (R), coping by the COPE, brief (B)-COPE, or religious (R)-COPE, and resilience by the CD-Resilience Scale (CD-RIS).
Results
Forty-one out of 52 (79%) studies showed that optimism is a statistically significant predictor of study-specific aspects of anxiety, distress, depression, or HRQOL. In a meta-analysis focused on depression, optimism was a statistically significant predictor of depression. Coping style is a statistically significant predictor for study-specific aspects of anxiety, distress, depression, or HRQOL in 41/43 (95%) studies. The coping studies were too heterogeneous in their outcome variables to perform meta-analyses. There were too few studies (n = 6) on resilience to draw any conclusions.
Conclusions
Despite many limitations of this literature, including the heterogeneity of study designs, differing sample sizes, across different countries, cultures, ethnicities, and races, most studies support that optimism and coping are predictors of anxiety, distress, depression, or HRQOL. Awareness of these psychological constructs and their potential impact on anxiety, depression, and HRQOL are a high priority.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Conversano C, Rotondo A, Lensi E, Della Vista O, Arpone F, Reda MA (2010) Optimism and its impact on mental and physical well-being. Clin Pract Epidemiol Ment Health 6:25–29
Binbing Y, Tiwari RC, Feuer EJ (2011) Estimating the personal cure rate of cancer patients using population-based grouped cancer survival data. Stat Methods Med Res 20(3):261–274
Ciatto S, Bonardi R (1991) Is breast cancer ever cured? Follow-up study of 5623 breast cancer patients. Tumori 77(6):465–467
Shapiro CL, Jacobsen PB, Henderson T, Hurria A, Nekhlyudov L, Ng A et al (2016) ReCAP: ASCO core curriculum for cancer survivorship education. J Oncol Pract 12(2):145
Carver CS, Scheier MF, Segerstrom SC (2010) Optimism. Clin Psychol Rev 30(7):879–889
Bates TC (2015) The glass is half full and half empty: a population-representative twin study testing if optimism and pessimism are distinct systems. J Posit Psychol 10(6):533–542
Goodin BR, Kronfli T, King CD, Glover TL, Sibille K, Fillingim RB (2013) Testing the relation between dispositional optimism and conditioned pain modulation: does ethnicity matter? J Behav Med 36(2):165–174
Goodin BR, Glover TL, Sotolongo A, King CD, Sibille KT, Herbert MS et al (2013) The association of greater dispositional optimism with less endogenous pain facilitation is indirectly transmitted through lower levels of pain catastrophizing. J Pain 14(2):126–135
Hirsch JK, Walker KL, Chang EC, Lyness JM (2012) Illness burden and symptoms of anxiety in older adults: optimism and pessimism as moderators. Int Psychogeriatr 24(10):1614–1621
Jobin J, Wrosch C, Scheier MF (2014) Associations between dispositional optimism and diurnal cortisol in a community sample: when stress is perceived as higher than normal. Health Psychol 33(4):382–391
Boehm JK, Williams DR, Rimm EB, Ryff C, Kubzansky LD (2013) Association between optimism and serum antioxidants in the midlife in the United States study. Psychosom Med 75(1):2–10
Roy B, Diez-Roux AV, Seeman T, Ranjit N, Shea S, Cushman M (2010) Association of optimism and pessimism with inflammation and hemostasis in the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA). Psychosom Med 72(2):134–140
Segerstrom SC, Sephton SE (2010) Optimistic expectancies and cell-mediated immunity: the role of positive affect. Psychol Sci 21(3):448–455
Taylor SE, Stanton AL (2007) Coping resources, coping processes, and mental health. Annu Rev Clin Psychol 3:377–401
Connor-Smith JK, Flachsbart C (2007) Relations between personality and coping: a meta-analysis. J Pers Soc Psychol 93(6):1080–1107
Scheier MF, Weintraub JK, Carver CS (1986) Coping with stress: divergent strategies of optimists and pessimists. J Pers Soc Psychol 51(6):1257–1264
Reuter K, Classen CC, Roscoe JA, Morrow GR, Kirshner JJ, Rosenbluth R et al (2006) Association of coping style, pain, age and depression with fatigue in women with primary breast cancer. Psychooncology 15(9):772–779
Wilkinson AV, Barrera SL, McBride CM, Snyder DC, Sloane R, Meneses KM et al (2012) Extant health behaviors and uptake of standardized vs tailored health messages among cancer survivors enrolled in the FRESH START trial: a comparison of fighting-spirits vs fatalists. Psychooncology 21(1):108–113
Watson M, Homewood J, Haviland J, Bliss JM (2005) Influence of psychological response on breast cancer survival: 10-year follow-up of a population-based cohort. Eur J Cancer 41(12):1710–1714
Rowland JH, Baker F (2005) Introduction: resilience of cancer survivors across the lifespan. Cancer 104(11 Suppl):2543–2548
Iacoviello BM, Charney DS (2014) Psychosocial facets of resilience: implications for preventing posttrauma psychopathology, treating trauma survivors, and enhancing community resilience. Eur J Psychotraumatol. https://doi.org/10.3402/ejpt.v5.23970
Osorio C, Probert T, Jones E, Young AH, Robbins I (2016) Adapting to stress: understanding the neurobiology of resilience. Behav Med 43:307
Moher D, Shamseer L, Clarke M, Ghersi D, Liberati A, Petticrew M et al (2015) Preferred reporting items for systematic review and meta-analysis protocols (PRISMA-P) 2015 statement. Syst Rev 4:1
Konstantopoulos S (2011) Fixed effects and variance components estimation in three-level meta-analysis. Res Synth Methods 2(1):61–76
Lewis S, Clarke M (2001) Forest plots: trying to see the wood and the trees. BMJ 322(7300):1479–1480
Green McDonald P, O'Connell M, Lutgendorf SK (2013) Psychoneuroimmunology and cancer: a decade of discovery, paradigm shifts, and methodological innovations. Brain Behav Immun 30(Suppl):S1–9
Thornton LM, Andersen BL, Blakely WP (2010) The pain, depression, and fatigue symptom cluster in advanced breast cancer: covariation with the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis and the sympathetic nervous system. Health Psychol 29(3):333–337
Verburg-van Kemenade BM, Cohen N, Chadzinska M (2017) Neuroendocrine-immune interaction: evolutionarily conserved mechanisms that maintain allostasis in an ever-changing environment. Dev Comp Immunol 66:2–23
Genetics of Personality C, de Moor MH, van den Berg SM, Verweij KJ, Krueger RF, Luciano M et al (2015) Meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies for neuroticism, and the polygenic association with major depressive disorder. JAMA Psychiatry 72(7):642–650
Gjerde LC, Czajkowski N, Roysamb E, Ystrom E, Tambs K, Aggen SH et al (2015) A longitudinal, population-based twin study of avoidant and obsessive-compulsive personality disorder traits from early to middle adulthood. Psychol Med 45(16):3539–3548
Herrmann D, Sinnett P, Holmes J, Khan S, Koller C, Vassar M (2016) Statistical controversies in clinical research: publication bias evaluations are not routinely conducted in clinical oncology systematic reviews. Ann Oncol
Carver CS, Smith RG, Antoni MH, Petronis VM, Weiss S, Derhagopian RP (2005) Optimistic personality and psychosocial well-being during treatment predict psychosocial well-being among long-term survivors of breast cancer. Health Psychol 24(5):508–516
Bardwell WA, Natarajan L, Dimsdale JE, Rock CL, Mortimer JE, Hollenbach K et al (2006) Objective cancer-related variables are not associated with depressive symptoms in women treated for early-stage breast cancer. J Clin Oncol 24(16):2420–2427
Saboonchi F, Petersson LM, Wennman-Larsen A, Alexanderson K, Vaez M (2015) Trajectories of anxiety among women with breast cancer: a proxy for adjustment from acute to transitional survivorship. J Psychosoc Oncol 33(6):603–619
Mehrabi E, Hajian S, Simbar M, Hoshyari M, Zayeri F (2015) Coping response following a diagnosis of breast cancer: a systematic review. Electron Physician 7(8):1575–1583
Hebert R, Zdaniuk B, Schulz R, Scheier M (2009) Positive and negative religious coping and well-being in women with breast cancer. J Palliat Med 12(6):537–545
Gall TL, Guirguis-Younger M, Charbonneau C, Florack P (2009) The trajectory of religious coping across time in response to the diagnosis of breast cancer. Psychooncology 18(11):1165–1178
Roberts BW, Mroczek D (2008) Personality trait change in adulthood. Curr Dir Psychol Sci 17(1):31–35
Magidson JF, Roberts BW, Collado-Rodriguez A, Lejuez CW (2014) Theory-driven intervention for changing personality: expectancy value theory, behavioral activation, and conscientiousness. Dev Psychol 50(5):1442–1450
Chapman BP, Hampson S, Clarkin J (2014) Personality-informed interventions for healthy aging: conclusions from a National Institute on Aging work group. Dev Psychol 50(5):1426–1441
Roberts BW, Luo J, Briley DA, Chow PI, Su R, Hill PL (2017) A systematic review of personality trait change through intervention. Psychol Bull 143(2):117–141
Jacobsen PB, Jim HS (2008) Psychosocial interventions for anxiety and depression in adult cancer patients: achievements and challenges. CA Cancer J Clin 58(4):214–230
Raingruber B (2011) The effectiveness of psychosocial interventions with cancer patients: an integrative review of the literature (2006–2011). ISRN Nurs 2011:638218
McAlpine H, Joubert L, Martin-Sanchez F, Merolli M, Drummond KJ (2015) A systematic review of types and efficacy of online interventions for cancer patients. Patient Educ Couns 98(3):283–295
Bouma G, Admiraal JM, de Vries EG, Schroder CP, Walenkamp AM, Reyners AK (2015) Internet-based support programs to alleviate psychosocial and physical symptoms in cancer patients: a literature analysis. Crit Rev Oncol Hematol 95(1):26–37
Scheier MF, Carver CS, Bridges MW (1994) Distinguishing optimism from neuroticism (and trait anxiety, self-mastery, and self-esteem): a reevaluation of the Life Orientation Test. J Pers Soc Psychol 67(6):1063–1078
Scheier MF, Carver CS (1985) Optimism, coping, and health: assessment and implications of generalized outcome expectancies. Health Psychol 4(3):219–247
Carver CS (1997) You want to measure coping but your protocol's too long: consider the brief COPE. Int J Behav Med 4(1):92–100
Carver CS, Scheier MF, Weintraub JK (1989) Assessing coping strategies: a theoretically based approach. J Pers Soc Psychol 56(2):267–283
Carver CS, Pozo C, Harris SD, Noriega V, Scheier MF, Robinson DS et al (1993) How coping mediates the effect of optimism on distress: a study of women with early stage breast cancer. J Pers Soc Psychol 65(2):375–390
Pargament KIF, Burdzy M (2011) The breif RCPOE: current psychometric status of a short measure of religous coping. Religions 2:51–76
Connor KM, Davidson JR (2003) Development of a new resilience scale: the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC). Depress Anxiety 18(2):76–82
Campbell-Sills L, Stein MB (2007) Psychometric analysis and refinement of the Connor-davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC): validation of a 10-item measure of resilience. J Trauma Stress 20(6):1019–1028
Loprinzi CE, Prasad K, Schroeder DR, Sood A (2011) Stress Management and Resilience Training (SMART) program to decrease stress and enhance resilience among breast cancer survivors: a pilot randomized clinical trial. Clin Breast Cancer 11(6):364–368
Funding
Here was no funding for this study.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that they have no conflict of interests.
Ethical approval
This article does not contain any studies with human participants or animals performed by any of the authors.
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Electronic supplementary material
Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Fasano, J., Shao, T., Huang, Hh. et al. Optimism and coping: do they influence health outcomes in women with breast cancer? A systemic review and meta-analysis. Breast Cancer Res Treat 183, 495–501 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10549-020-05800-5
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10549-020-05800-5