Young Women with Breast Cancer: Supportive Care Needs and Resilience

Abstract

Background: Women with breast cancer (BC) under 40 years of age have unique and important bio-psycho-social characteristics that should be assessed. Objective: To evaluate: a) the unmet supportive care needs (SCN) perception and the level of resilience, b) the difference in SCN between patients in active treatment and survivors, c) the relationship between SCN and resilience, in addition to its relationship with clinical, and sociodemographic variables, respectively. Method: The unmet SCN and the level ofresilience were cross-sectionally assessed in 150 young women with BC. Results: Participants had amedian age of 36 years. The highest unmet needs were related to the healthcare system and informationneeds. The most unmet needs were reported by the group undergoing treatment compared to those insurveillance (p=.005). We found a significant and negative relationship between unmet SCN (global,psychological, care and support, and information) and resilience domains (P <.005), in both groups andseparately. Conclusions: The perception of low unmet needs could be caused by external conditions(such as infrastructure, health services provided and social security support), abilities’ perception (suchas self-confidence, structure and organization) and/or support resources perceived (social and family).These results highlight the clinical relevance to address interventions based on resilience.