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Longitudinal associations between coping strategies, locus of control and health-related quality of life in patients with breast cancer or melanoma

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Abstract

Purpose

A diagnosis of breast cancer or melanoma is a traumatic life event that patients have to face. However, their locus-of-control (LOC) beliefs and coping strategies as well as the associations with health-related quality of life (HRQoL) changes over time are still not well known and rarely compared by cancer site.

Methods

The objective of this longitudinal study was to assess the association of LOC (Cancer Locus-of-Control Scale) and coping (Brief Cope) changes, with change in HRQoL (EORTC QLQ-C30) over time in newly diagnosed breast cancer and melanoma patients at 1, 6, 12, and 24 month post-diagnosis. Mixed models were used to compare LOC and coping longitudinal changes as well as their associations with HRQoL changes in early-stage breast cancer and melanoma patients.

Results

Overall, 215 breast cancer and 78 melanoma patients participated in the study. At baseline, HRQoL levels were often higher for breast cancer compared to melanoma patients. For breast cancer and melanoma patients, negative coping strategies and perceived control over the course of illness were negatively and positively associated with HRQoL changes, respectively. For breast cancer patients only, emotional coping and internal causal attribution were negatively associated with HRQoL changes. For both cancer sites, living with a partner correlated with worse HRQoL.

Conclusions

Understanding coping strategies and LOC beliefs used by patients soon after their cancer diagnosis and over the course of illness can help identifying psychological and supportive care to modify maladaptive thoughts and beliefs and promote more adaptive behaviors to ultimately improve patients’ well-being and HRQoL.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to extend their sincere thanks to the patients who participated in the study and to the following clinicians (GQ, FD) and psychologist (RR) for discussions during the study: Gaëlle Quéreux, François Dravet, and Rosalba Rosato.

Funding

This work was supported by the [Ligue Nationale contre le Cancer]; [National platform “Qualité de vie et cancer”]; and [Institut National du Cancer] under Grant [“INCA_6931”].

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. UMR INSERM 1246, SPHERE “methodS in patient-centered outcomes and HEalth ResEarch”, University of Nantes, University of Tours, 22 boulevard Benoni Goullin, Nantes, France

    Anna Toscano, Myriam Blanchin, Marianne Bourdon, Angélique Bonnaud Antignac & Véronique Sébille

  2. Department of Psychology, University of Turin, Turin, Italy

    Anna Toscano

  3. Surgical Oncology Service, ICO Nantes, Saint Herblain, France

    Angélique Bonnaud Antignac

  4. Methodology and Biostatistics Unit, CHU of Nantes, Nantes, France

    Véronique Sébille

Authors
  1. Anna Toscano
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  2. Myriam Blanchin
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  3. Marianne Bourdon
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  5. Véronique Sébille
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Contributions

AT analyzed the data and drafted the paper; MB and VS supervised the work and revised the paper; MB and ABA revised the paper; all authors approved the final version of the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Véronique Sébille.

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Toscano, A., Blanchin, M., Bourdon, M. et al. Longitudinal associations between coping strategies, locus of control and health-related quality of life in patients with breast cancer or melanoma. Qual Life Res 29, 1271–1279 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11136-019-02401-8

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