Health among long-term survivors of breast cancer-an analysis of 5-year survivors based on the Swedish surveys of living conditions 1979-1995 and the Swedish Cancer Registry 2000.
In this paper we examine health among breast cancer 5-year survivors. We raise two questions: (1) how do the health level of this survival group compare to the health level of the general population; and (2) how have the health levels among these survivors changed over time. We found that 5-year breast cancer survivors assess their health lower than the general population, and that having being diagnosed in a later year increases health compared to having received the diagnosis at an earlier point in time. This implies that screening and treatment of breast cancer have been successful. Further, we did not find any statistically significant effect of the length of the time spell since diagnosis on health. One reason for this may be that those additional individuals surviving over time as a result of improved treatment therapies have on average lower health levels than those who survived before more efficient medical technologies were introduced.
Bolin
Kristian
K
Department of Health Sciences, Vårdal Institute, Lund University, Lund, Sweden. Kristian.Bolin@Luche.lu.se
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology*; D018572:Disease-Free Survival; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D008403:Mass Screening; D008875:Middle Aged; D008954:Models, Biological; D012042:Registries; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013548:Sweden / Q000453:epidemiology