Social isolation ups risk of breast cancer death

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Women who have few close friends or family members at the time of a breast cancer diagnosis are more likely to die from breast cancer than those who are more socially integrated, according to study findings.

“Social connections matter for BC (breast cancer) survival,” study author Dr. Candyce H. Kroenke, of the University of California, Berkeley and San Francisco, told Reuters Health.

“Among women with breast cancer, social isolation may serve to limit access to care, specifically, informal caregiving from friends and family, which may affect breast cancer outcomes,” she and her colleagues write in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

They examined data from nearly 3,000 women in the Nurses’ Health Study who were 46 to 71 years old in 1992 and were diagnosed with breast cancer between 1992 and 2002. The women completed periodic questionnaires, including items related to their social networks, such as marital status and number and frequency of contacts with close friends and relatives, and their social-emotional support, or their having a confidant.

By 2004, 224 women died, including 107 who died from breast cancer.

Based on the researchers’ analysis, socially isolated women, including those with few relatives or friends and who did not belong to any church or community groups, were 66 percent more likely to die from all causes and twice as likely to die from breast cancer than those who were the most socially integrated.

“I think that women who were isolated didn’t have a strong reserve of people to call on that help with management of breast cancer,” Kroenke speculated.

Participating in religious or community activities did not appear to have any effect on the women’s survival after breast cancer diagnosis, however, and having a confidant or a spouse was similarly unrelated to their survival, the report indicates.

Yet, the presence, or absence, of close relatives, friends and living children each had a great impact on survival.

Women who had no close relatives or friends were about three and four times more likely to die from breast cancer, respectively, than those with 10 or more close relatives or friends. Also, those who had no living children had a nearly six-fold increased risk of death from breast cancer in comparison to those with six or more living children, the report indicates.

In comparison to church and community group participation, the ties of family and friends had a significant impact on survival perhaps “because they provided care in a way that helped them (patients) manage breast cancer—pragmatic things such as help to the doctor, help with meds, meals, talking to clinicians and helping with information,” Kroenke speculated.

In light of the findings, women diagnosed with breast cancer should “know that the people around you after diagnosis can make a difference in whether you survive the disease,” Kroenke told Reuters Health.

SOURCE: Journal of Clinical Oncology, March 1, 2006. 

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