title: Child maltreatment and breast cancer survivors: social support makes a difference for quality of life, fatigue and cancer stress.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To identify how child maltreatment is associated with quality of life (QOL) among breast cancer survivors.
  
  
  METHODS
  One hundred and thirty two women who had completed treatment for stage 0-IIIA breast cancer within the past 2 years (except for tamoxifen/aromatase inhibitors) and were at least 2 months post surgery, radiation, or chemotherapy completed questionnaires including the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire, the Impact of Events Scale, the Multidimensional Fatigue Symptom Inventory-Short Form (MFSI-SF) and the Fact-B breast cancer quality of life questionnaire.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Women who were abused or neglected as children reported more cancer-related psychological distress, more fatigue and poorer physical, emotional, functional and breast cancer-specific well-being after treatment. These relations were partially explained by the fact that breast cancer survivors reported receiving less support as adults.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The findings suggest that child maltreatment is an important predictor of QOL among breast cancer survivors. One reason why this association exists is because those who are maltreated as children report less support as adults. A better understanding of how child maltreatment contributes to breast cancer survivor QOL will help in tailoring and, therefore, enhancing the efficacy of interventions aimed at improving QOL.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Behavioral Medicine Research, The Ohio State University College of Medicine, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210, United States. christopher.fagundes@osumc.edu
authors.forename: Christopher P
authors.initials: CP
authors.lastname: Fagundes
authors.forename: Monica E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Lindgren
authors.forename: Charles L
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Shapiro
authors.forename: Janice K
authors.initials: JK
authors.lastname: Kiecolt-Glaser
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology* / Q000601:surgery; D002648:Child; D002649:Child Abuse / Q000523:psychology*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005221:Fatigue / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D011788:Quality of Life; D012944:Social Support; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D017741:Survivors / Q000523:psychology*