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The impact of a cancer diagnosis on health and well-being: a prospective, population-based study

Williams, K; Jackson, SE; Beeken, RJ; Steptoe, A; Wardle, J; (2015) The impact of a cancer diagnosis on health and well-being: a prospective, population-based study. Psychooncology 10.1002/pon.3998. Green open access

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Abstract

OBJECTIVE: Little is known about the trajectory of health and well-being from before to after a cancer diagnosis. This study aimed to examine changes in health and well-being across three time points (0-2 years before a cancer diagnosis, 0-2 years post-diagnosis and 2-4 years post-diagnosis) in individuals receiving a new cancer diagnosis, and at matched time points in a cancer-free comparison group. METHODS: Data were from waves 1-6 of the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing. Repeated-measures ANOVAs were used to examine differences in self-rated health, mobility impairments, activities of daily living impairments, quality of life, depressive symptoms and life satisfaction by group and time, and group-by-time interactions. RESULTS: Of the 4565 participants with data from three time points, 444 (9.7%) reported a new cancer diagnosis. Those in the cancer group reported poorer self-rated health (p < .001), quality of life (p < .001) and life satisfaction (p < .01) than participants in the comparison group, and a higher proportion reported depressive symptoms (p < .001) and impairments in mobility (p < .001) and activities of daily living (p < .001). All markers of health and well-being worsened significantly over time. The group-by-time interaction was significant for self-rated health (p < .001), with a greater decline in health over time in the cancer group. CONCLUSIONS: Cancer survivors in this sample had poorer health and well-being than those with no diagnosis, and self-rated health deteriorated more rapidly following a cancer diagnosis. Screening for these factors around the time of a cancer diagnosis could allow for interventions to be targeted effectively and improve the health and well-being of cancer survivors. © 2015 The Authors. Psycho-Oncology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Type: Article
Title: The impact of a cancer diagnosis on health and well-being: a prospective, population-based study
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1002/pon.3998
Publisher version: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/pon.3998
Language: English
Additional information: © 2015 The Authors. Psycho-Oncology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Keywords: cancer, depression, longitudinal, oncology, quality of life, survivorship
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > Institute of Epidemiology and Health
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > Institute of Epidemiology and Health > Behavioural Science and Health
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1473157
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