title: Persistence of restrictions in quality of life from the first to the third year after diagnosis in women with breast cancer.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To assess whether detriments in quality of life (QOL) among women with breast cancer persist over years.
  
  
  METHODS
  QOL was assessed in a population-based cohort of 314 women with breast cancer from Saarland (Germany) 1 and 3 years after diagnosis and compared internally and with reference data from the general population.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Three years after diagnosis, deficits in QOL were still apparent for role, emotional, cognitive, and social functioning and for the symptoms of insomnia, fatigue, dyspnea, and financial difficulties. Differences between breast cancer patients and women from the general population were predominantly found in younger ages. Compared with the QOL scores measured 1 year after diagnosis, only minor functional changes were observed, but recurrence of breast cancer during the follow-up interval had a deleterious effect on QOL.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Deficits in role, emotional, cognitive, and social functioning persist over years in women with breast cancer and predominantly affect younger patients.
authors.affiliation: German Centre for Research on Ageing, Department of Epidemiology, Bergheimer Strasse 20, D-69115 Heidelberg, Germany. arndt@dzfa.uni-heidelberg.de
authors.forename: Volker
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Arndt
authors.forename: Henrike
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Merx
authors.forename: Christa
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Stegmaier
authors.forename: Hartwig
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ziegler
authors.forename: Hermann
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Brenner
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000150:complications* / Q000523:psychology*; D003071:Cognition; D015331:Cohort Studies; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011788:Quality of Life; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012919:Social Behavior