Table 3.
Adjusted mean QOL for women with breast cancer compared with the general population stratified by residence location
| Quality of life | Residence | General population | Breast cancer survivors | Difference between groups | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Meana | 95% CI | Meana | 95% CI | P-Value | clinicalb | |||
| Physical well-being (0-28) | urban | 25.0 | 24.8, 25.3 | 24.2 | 23.8, 24.6 | < 0.01 | ✗ | |
| non-urban | 25.1 | 24.7, 25.5 | 22.7 | 22.2, 23.2 | < 0.01 | ✓ | ||
| Social well-being (0-28) | urban | 19.9 | 19.5, 20.4 | 22.4 | 21.6, 23.2 | < 0.01 | ✓ | |
| non-urban | 19.6 | 19.0, 20.2 | 22.4 | 21.7, 23.1 | < 0.01 | ✓ | ||
| Emotional well-being (0-24) | urban | 21.1 | 20.8, 21.4 | 19.6 | 19.1, 20.0 | < 0.01 | ✗ | |
| non-urban | 20.9 | 20.5, 21.2 | 19.2 | 18.8, 19.7 | < 0.01 | ✗ | ||
| Functional well-being (0-28) | urban | 20.6 | 20.2, 21.1 | 22.0 | 21.3, 22.7 | < 0.01 | ✗ | |
| non-urban | 20.2 | 19.7, 20.8 | 21.6 | 21.0, 22.3 | < 0.01 | ✗ | ||
| FACT-G (0-108) | urban | 86.9 | 85.8, 88.0 | 88.0 | 86.3, 89.8 | 0.28 | ✗ | |
| non-urban | 85.8 | 84.4, 87.3 | 86.2 | 84.4, 87.9 | 0.79 | ✗ | ||
Abbreviations:
FACT-G: Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-General.
Notes:
(a) Adjusted for age (years), marital status (married or living as married, not married), education level (low, moderate, high), private health insurance status (yes, no), smoking status (never smoked, past smoker, current smoker), physical activity (sedentary, insufficient, sufficient), body mass index (underweight/healthy, overweight, obese, missing), and co-morbidities (none, one, two, three or more).
(b) ✗: clinically meaningful difference between groups (two+ points for physical, social, emotional and functional well-being, five+ points for FACT-G); ✓: no clinically meaningful difference between groups.