Post-treatment symptoms among ethnic minority breast cancer survivors.
OBJECTIVE
To determine racial and ethnic differences in the range and number of post-treatment symptoms among women who have undergone surgical and postsurgical treatment for breast cancer.


METHODS
Retrospective study.


METHODS
Community-based social services agency and public health clinic.


METHODS
Face-to-face interview of 116 women who had undergone breast cancer surgery.


METHODS
Primarily low-income women in an urban area in northern California. Participants were recruited via posted flyers regarding the study.


METHODS
Outcomes (depression, fatigue, pain, and swelling from lymphedema) and demographics (ethnicity, age, income, insurance, education, and marital status).


RESULTS
The typical participant was 47 years old, had 12 years of education, and was a parent (74%), unmarried (67%), heterosexual (88%), uninsured (68%), and employed (66%). Thirty percent were Caucasian, 30% African American, 25% Latina, and 15% women of other ethnic backgrounds. African American women and Latinas reported increased rates of pain and an increased number of symptoms. Latinas also reported higher rates of fatigue and depression. In multivariate analyses, an increased number of symptoms were associated with decreased income, with receiving chemotherapy, with having a mastectomy, and with Latina ethnicity.


CONCLUSIONS
These data suggest an increased rate of post-treatment symptoms experienced by low-income and ethnic minority women.


CONCLUSIONS
A need exists for affordable, culturally appropriate symptom management interventions. Nursing will have a vital role in designing, testing, and offering such interventions.
Eversley
Rani
R
Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA. devers@itsa.ucsf.edu
Estrin
Diane
D
Dibble
Suzanne
S
Wardlaw
Linda
L
Pedrosa
Maria
M
Favila-Penney
Wendy
W
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001741:Black or African American; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000601:surgery*; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003863:Depression; D005221:Fatigue; D005260:Female; D006630:Hispanic or Latino; D006801:Humans; D008408:Mastectomy / Q000451:nursing*; D008875:Middle Aged; D010146:Pain; D011203:Poverty; D011379:Prognosis; D011788:Quality of Life; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D017741:Survivors; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014505:Urban Population; D044465:White People