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Chronic pain in female breast cancer survivors - prevalence, characteristics and contributing factors: a cross-sectional pilot study

BACKGROUND: While the global incidence of breast cancer is increasing, there is also an increase in the numbers of breast cancer survivors and in survival duration, as early detection programs are implemented, and treatments are optimized. Breast cancer survivors in several countries commonly strugg...

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Autores principales: Shabangu, Nelisiwe, Thebe, Tselane, Casey, Michelle, Wesselmann, Ursula, Parker, Romy
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10655434/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37974174
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12905-023-02766-6
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author Shabangu, Nelisiwe
Thebe, Tselane
Casey, Michelle
Wesselmann, Ursula
Parker, Romy
author_facet Shabangu, Nelisiwe
Thebe, Tselane
Casey, Michelle
Wesselmann, Ursula
Parker, Romy
author_sort Shabangu, Nelisiwe
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: While the global incidence of breast cancer is increasing, there is also an increase in the numbers of breast cancer survivors and in survival duration, as early detection programs are implemented, and treatments are optimized. Breast cancer survivors in several countries commonly struggle with a range of symptoms (fatigue, insomnia, depression) with 25–80% of survivors suffering from chronic pain. There is a paucity of literature reporting on breast cancer survivors in South Africa. In this pilot study we aimed to determine the prevalence of chronic pain in female breast cancer survivors attending the breast oncology clinic. METHODS: A cross-sectional survey was conducted of all breast cancer survivors attending the Groote Schuur Hospital Breast Unit during one month in 2019. 44 female breast cancer survivors (median age 60.5y) completed a sociodemographic questionnaire, the Brief Pain Inventory, Pain Catastrophizing Scale and measures for neuropathic pain (DN4), health related quality of life (HRQoL; EQ-5d-3 L), physical activity (IPAQ), depression and anxiety (PHQ4), and screening questions to evaluate sleep, happiness and perceived discrimination in the language of their choice. RESULTS: The prevalence of chronic pain (pain on most days for more than three months) was 59% (95%CI 44–72), a significantly higher number than the 18,3% prevalence of chronic pain reported by South African adults. 39% of the women were classified as having neuropathic pain. The median pain severity score was 3.75 (IQR = 2.75-5) and the median pain interference with function score was 4 (IQR = 2.9–5.4). The women were experiencing pain in a median of 2 different body sites (IQR = 1–3). The women with pain were more likely to be unemployed or receiving a disability grant, had significantly worse HRQoL, and significantly worse scores for risk of depression and anxiety. CONCLUSION: The results of this pilot study suggest that chronic pain may be a significant burden for South African breast cancer survivors. Routine screening for chronic pain in breast cancer survivors is recommended with a larger study indicated to explore this issue further. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12905-023-02766-6.
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spelling pubmed-106554342023-11-16 Chronic pain in female breast cancer survivors - prevalence, characteristics and contributing factors: a cross-sectional pilot study Shabangu, Nelisiwe Thebe, Tselane Casey, Michelle Wesselmann, Ursula Parker, Romy BMC Womens Health Research BACKGROUND: While the global incidence of breast cancer is increasing, there is also an increase in the numbers of breast cancer survivors and in survival duration, as early detection programs are implemented, and treatments are optimized. Breast cancer survivors in several countries commonly struggle with a range of symptoms (fatigue, insomnia, depression) with 25–80% of survivors suffering from chronic pain. There is a paucity of literature reporting on breast cancer survivors in South Africa. In this pilot study we aimed to determine the prevalence of chronic pain in female breast cancer survivors attending the breast oncology clinic. METHODS: A cross-sectional survey was conducted of all breast cancer survivors attending the Groote Schuur Hospital Breast Unit during one month in 2019. 44 female breast cancer survivors (median age 60.5y) completed a sociodemographic questionnaire, the Brief Pain Inventory, Pain Catastrophizing Scale and measures for neuropathic pain (DN4), health related quality of life (HRQoL; EQ-5d-3 L), physical activity (IPAQ), depression and anxiety (PHQ4), and screening questions to evaluate sleep, happiness and perceived discrimination in the language of their choice. RESULTS: The prevalence of chronic pain (pain on most days for more than three months) was 59% (95%CI 44–72), a significantly higher number than the 18,3% prevalence of chronic pain reported by South African adults. 39% of the women were classified as having neuropathic pain. The median pain severity score was 3.75 (IQR = 2.75-5) and the median pain interference with function score was 4 (IQR = 2.9–5.4). The women were experiencing pain in a median of 2 different body sites (IQR = 1–3). The women with pain were more likely to be unemployed or receiving a disability grant, had significantly worse HRQoL, and significantly worse scores for risk of depression and anxiety. CONCLUSION: The results of this pilot study suggest that chronic pain may be a significant burden for South African breast cancer survivors. Routine screening for chronic pain in breast cancer survivors is recommended with a larger study indicated to explore this issue further. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12905-023-02766-6. BioMed Central 2023-11-16 /pmc/articles/PMC10655434/ /pubmed/37974174 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12905-023-02766-6 Text en © The Author(s) 2023 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) . The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) ) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data.
spellingShingle Research
Shabangu, Nelisiwe
Thebe, Tselane
Casey, Michelle
Wesselmann, Ursula
Parker, Romy
Chronic pain in female breast cancer survivors - prevalence, characteristics and contributing factors: a cross-sectional pilot study
title Chronic pain in female breast cancer survivors - prevalence, characteristics and contributing factors: a cross-sectional pilot study
title_full Chronic pain in female breast cancer survivors - prevalence, characteristics and contributing factors: a cross-sectional pilot study
title_fullStr Chronic pain in female breast cancer survivors - prevalence, characteristics and contributing factors: a cross-sectional pilot study
title_full_unstemmed Chronic pain in female breast cancer survivors - prevalence, characteristics and contributing factors: a cross-sectional pilot study
title_short Chronic pain in female breast cancer survivors - prevalence, characteristics and contributing factors: a cross-sectional pilot study
title_sort chronic pain in female breast cancer survivors - prevalence, characteristics and contributing factors: a cross-sectional pilot study
topic Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10655434/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37974174
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12905-023-02766-6
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