Psychological Resilience and Health-Related Quality of Life in Swedish Women with Newly Diagnosed Breast Cancer

PURPOSE: Psychological resilience appears to be an important influencing factor in various aspects of health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in a context of adversity, eg, being informed of a cancer diagnosis. The purpose was to investigate psychological resilience and HRQoL in Swedish women with newly diagnosed breast cancer in relation to demographic and clinicopathological characteristics. METHODS: A population-based cross-sectional study was conducted including 517 women with breast cancer in the South Swedish Health Care Region. Participants were enrolled at the time of consultation for the diagnosis. Psychological resilience was assessed with the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale 25 (CD-RISC25), and HRQoL was assessed with the Short Form Health Survey. The participants responded to questions regarding demographic variables. Clinicopathological data were collected from the Swedish National Quality Register for Breast Cancer. RESULTS: The mean score for psychological resilience was 70.6, identifying 15% of included patients with a score lower than 58 (−1 standard deviation). The study cohort had significantly lower mean scores for several aspects of HRQoL compared with Swedish normative data. Regression analyses demonstrated that psychological resilience was significantly associated with all domains of HRQoL after adjustment for demographic and clinicopathological factors. CONCLUSION: Higher levels of psychological resilience were significantly related to higher levels of HRQoL in Swedish women with newly diagnosed breast cancer and no modifying factor was identified. The assessment of psychological resilience at the time of breast cancer diagnosis might allow for early identification of women in need of more intense psychosocial support. Future studies are needed to identify a clinically relevant threshold of the CD-RISC25.