Table 2.

Health characteristics of posters and lurkers (n = 220) (excluding missing data)

		Posters (n = 107)		Lurkers (n = 113)		P value
		n	%	n	%
Time since diagnosis (years)						.02a
	<1	52	49	31	38
	1–2	33	31	39	35
	3–5	9	8	23	21
	6–9	10	9	9	8
	≥10	2	2	8	7
Cancer stage at diagnosis						.39b
	I	50	47	36	34
	II	43	41	48	45
	III+	8	8	13	12
	Not known	5	5	9	8
Presence of symptomsc						.26b
	Yes	93	87	85	75
	No	14	13	28	25
Number of symptoms, mean (SD)		2 (1.685)		2 (1.456)		.62d
Physical condition						.77a
	Living completely as usual	57	53	58	51
	Living as usual	50	47	55	49
HADSe, mean (SD)
	Summed scores	12.6 (6.9)		13.4 (8.7)		.52d
	Depression	6.2 (3.6)		6.5 (4.1)		.63d
	Anxiety	6.4 (4.1)		6.9 (5.4)		.51d

^a Kruskal-Wallis test.

^b χ² test. Degrees of freedom were the number of category –1.

^c Respondents checked all of their current symptoms due to breast cancer (eg, pain, tiredness, paralysis of arm, and nausea) and were classified as having symptoms if they chose more than 1 symptom.

^d t test. Degree of freedom was 219.

^e Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale.