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Understanding the relationship between positive and negative social support and the quality of life among African American breast cancer survivors

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Abstract

Purpose

Social support improves several quality of life (QOL) domains among African American breast cancer survivors. How different dimensions of social support are associated with QOL among African American breast cancer survivors may however differ from other populations. This study explores this hypothesis by examining associations of positive social support (supportive interactions that promote affection) and negative social support (non-supportive interactions wherein the provider of support may not have the best intended actions) with QOL among Chicago-based African American breast cancer survivors.

Methods

Study participants were eligible if they (1) were identified as being an African American female, (2) were at least 18 years of age or older, and (3) were diagnosed with breast cancer during or after navigation was implemented at the study hospital. Participants completed validated questionnaires via telephone or in-person interviews.

Results

Among our sample of 100 participants, positive support was associated with greater mental well-being in non-imputed (Std β=1.60, CI: 0.51, 2.69, p= 0.004) and imputed models (Std β= 1.67, CI: 0.68, 2.73, p=0.001). There was also a weaker inverse association with negative support and mental well-being when using non-imputed data (Std β=−0.82, CI:−1.65, 0.02, p= 0.05).

Conclusions

Our findings suggest that positive support, in particular, is highly influential for improving mental well-being among African American breast cancer survivors. Simultaneously, negative support appears to be an independent, albeit weaker, determinant of mental well-being.

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Data Availability

Interested stakeholders may communicate with the corresponding co-author (YM) to access de-identified data sets.

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Code availability

Interested stakeholders may communicate with the corresponding co-author (YM) to access syntax files for analyses.

Funding

This study was funded by the National Cancer Institute (R21CA215252, T32CA057699).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Health Research and Policy, University of Illinois at Chicago, 1747 W. Roosevelt Rd., Chicago, IL, 60608, USA

    Shaila M. Strayhorn & Desmona C. Strahan

  2. Division of Community Health Sciences, School of Public Health, 1603 W. Taylor St. (MC 923), Chicago, IL, 60612, USA

    Nyahne Q. Bergeron, Karriem S. Watson & Yamilé Molina

  3. Advocate Aurora Research Institute, 3075 Highland Parkway, Downers Grove, IL, 60515, USA

    Dana Villines & Veronica Fitzpatrick

  4. University of Illinois Cancer Center, 914 S. Wood St., Chicago, IL, 60612, USA

    Karriem S. Watson & Yamilé Molina

  5. University of Chicago, 5841 S Maryland Ave MC 5065, Chicago, IL, 60637, USA

    Aditya Khanna

  6. Mile Square Health Center, 912 Wood Street, Chicago, IL, 60612, USA

    Karriem S. Watson

Authors
  1. Shaila M. Strayhorn
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  2. Nyahne Q. Bergeron
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  3. Desmona C. Strahan
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  4. Dana Villines
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  7. Aditya Khanna
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  8. Yamilé Molina
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Contributions

Shaila M. Strayhorn and Yamilé Molina contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection, and analysis were performed by Desmona C. Starhan, Nyahne Q. Bergeron, and Shaila M. Strayhorn under the supervision of Yamilé Molina. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Shaila M Strayhorn and Yamilé Molina. All authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Yamilé Molina.

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Ethics approval

Several institutional review boards approved the data collection procedures that involve study participants to ensure their accordance with the ethical standards of each institution.

Consent to participate

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Not applicable/no identifying information used for any individual participant

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

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Strayhorn, S.M., Bergeron, N.Q., Strahan, D.C. et al. Understanding the relationship between positive and negative social support and the quality of life among African American breast cancer survivors. Support Care Cancer 29, 5219–5226 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-021-06098-9

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