The influence of resilience on anxiety, depression and quality of life in women with breast cancer before neoadjuvant chemotherapy

Abstract

Resilience has been suggested as the capacity to cope with adversities. Neoadjuvant chemotherapy has been increasingly recommended to women with advanced breast cancer to improve surgical outcomes. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the influence of resilience on anxiety, depression and quality of life (QOL) in women with breast cancer prior to neoadjuvant chemotherapy. The participants were women with breast cancer waiting their neoadjuvant chemotherapy, who were recruited for this study from tertiary hospitals in Seoul, Korea. They were completed the Connor–Davidson Resilience Scale to measure resilience before receiving a first cycle of chemotherapy. Anxiety, depression and QOL were assessed by using the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale and the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy‐Breast. Perceived social support was assessed with the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support. The effect of resilience on anxiety, depression and QOL were evaluated using linear regression analyses. The relationships between the levels of resilience and those symptoms were evaluated using logistic regression analyses. A total of 134 patients were included in the analyses. Higher levels of resilience were negatively associated with anxiety (β = −0.297, P = .001) and depression (β = −0.273, P = .002), and positively associated with QOL (β = 0.268, P = .002). The highest quartile of resilience level was associated with lower risk (adjusted OR = 0.14, P = .002) for anxiety symptom, and lower risk (adjusted OR = 0.18, P = .004) for depression symptom compared to the lowest quartile. Our results suggest that resilience may independently contribute to low level of anxiety and depression, and high level of QOL in breast cancer patients before neoadjuvant chemotherapy.