The quality of life of African American women with breast cancer

The objectives of this study were to describe the quality of life of Africa n American women with breast cancer and test a model of factors that may af fect their quality of life. A stress-coping framework that included person (demographics, current concerns, and optimism), social resources (family fu nctioning), and illness-related factors (symptom distress, medical characte ristics), as well as appraisal of illness and quality of life, was used to guide this exploratory, cross-sectional study. Participants included 98 Afr ican American women who were approximately 4 years postdiagnosis. The women reported a fairly high quality of life, were generally optimistic, and had effective family functioning. Although symptom distress was generally low, a sizable number of women reported problems with energy loss, sleep distur bances, and pain. The model explained 75% of the variance in quality of lif e, with appraisal, family functioning, symptom dis tress, and recurrence st atus each explaining a significant amount of the variance. Current concerns had an indirect effect on quality of life that was mediated by appraisal. These findings underscore the importance of helping women foster a positive appraisal of their illness, manage current concerns, maintain family funct ioning, and reduce symptom distress, because each of these factors indirect ly or directly affects their quality of life. (C) 1999 John Wiley & Sons, I nc. Res Nurs Health 22:449-460. 1999.