Gender, race, BMI, and social support in relation to the health-related quality of life of cancer survivors: a report from the American Cancer Society's Study of Cancer Survivors II (SCS-II).
OBJECTIVE
We examined the main and interactive effects of race, BMI, and social support on physical and mental health-related quality of life (HRQoL) among male and female cancer survivors using the stress and coping theory to inform findings.


METHODS
HRQoL issues among 1768 cancer survivors were examined using the American Cancer Society's cross-sectional Study of Cancer Survivors II. Two-step multiple linear regressions were conducted to assess the physical and mental HRQoL of male and female cancer survivors, respectively.


RESULTS
The average age of participants was 67.36 (SD = 11.51); the majority were female (53.3 %; n = 941) and non-Hispanic White (85.9 %; n = 1517). The average BMI measurement for participants was 28.33 (SD = 5.90), with 41.3 % (n = 729) overweight and 30.3 % (n = 535) obese. Higher BMI was significantly associated with lower physical HRQoL across gender, while social support had significant main effects on physical and mental HRQoL across gender. Race moderated the relationship between social support and physical HRQoL among female cancer survivors and between BMI and mental HRQoL for both genders.


CONCLUSIONS
The results of this study contribute a unique gender- and racial-specific perspective to cancer survivorship research. While the buffering hypothesis of the stress and coping theory was not supported, the main effects of BMI and social support on HRQoL were different across gender and race.
Department of Behavioral Science and Health Education, Emory University Rollins School of Public Health, Atlanta, GA, USA. ruthwestby@gmail.com.|ICF International, 3 Corporate Square, Suite 370, Atlanta, GA, 30329, USA. ruthwestby@gmail.com.
Ruth P
RP
Westby
Department of Behavioral Science and Health Education, Emory University Rollins School of Public Health, Atlanta, GA, USA.
Carla J
CJ
Berg
Behavioral Research Center (BRC), American Cancer Society, Atlanta, GA, USA.
Corinne
C
Leach
D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000570:American Cancer Society; D015992:Body Mass Index; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006296:Health Services; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000628:therapy*; D009765:Obesity; D011788:Quality of Life / Q000523:psychology*; D012737:Sex Factors; D012944:Social Support; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D017741:Survivors; D014481:United States; D044465:White People
BMI; Cancer survivorship; Quality of life; Social support; Theory of stress and coping