Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 Aug;30(8):6633-6640.
doi: 10.1007/s00520-022-07083-6. Epub 2022 May 2.

Pain, depressive symptoms, and self-efficacy for pain management: examination in African-American women with breast cancer

Jennifer C Plumb Vilardaga  1 , Hannah M Fisher  2 , Joseph G Winger  2 , Shannon N Miller  2 , Christine Nuñez  3 , Catherine Majestic  2 , Sarah A Kelleher  2 , Tamara J Somers  2
Affiliations

Pain, depressive symptoms, and self-efficacy for pain management: examination in African-American women with breast cancer

Jennifer C Plumb Vilardaga et al. Support Care Cancer. 2022 Aug.

Abstract

Purpose: African-American women with breast cancer face significant disparities, including high levels of pain. Depressive symptoms and self-efficacy for pain management impact how women with breast cancer manage pain, yet little is known about how these variables relate to pain specifically for African-American women with breast cancer.

Methods: Baseline linear regression analyses were conducted using a sample of women (n = 98) with stage I-III breast cancer identifying as Black or African-American who were part of a larger intervention trial. Linear regressions explored the effect of depressive symptoms on pain (i.e., severity and interference), and the effect of self-efficacy for pain management on pain. Covariates were age (M = 57.22, SD = 10.76), cancer stage (50% = stage 1), and education level (36% = some college).

Results: Participants reported moderate levels of pain severity and interference. Higher depressive symptoms were related to both higher pain severity and interference; (B = 0.06, p < 0.01, 95% CI [0.02,0.09]) and (B = 0.13, p < 0.001, 95% CI [0.09, 0.17]) respectively. Likewise, lower self-efficacy for pain management was also related to both higher pain severity and interference; (B = - 0.04, p < 0.001, 95% CI [- 0.05, - 0.02]) and (B = - 0.06, p < 0.001, 95% CI [- 0.08, - 0.04]) respectively. Women reporting less than a high school diploma endorsed significantly higher pain severity and interference than women reporting some college. Age and cancer stage were not significantly related to pain.

Conclusion: Pain for African-American women with breast cancer may be influenced by depressive symptoms and self-efficacy for pain management, in addition to other important variables. Attending to better assessment and treatment of depressive symptoms and self-efficacy for pain management may improve outcomes.

Keywords: Breast cancer; Depression; Health disparities; Pain; Self-efficacy.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Competing interests The authors declare no competing interests.

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. DeSantis CE, Ma J, Gaudet MM et al. (2019) Breast cancer statistics, 2019. CA Cancer J Clin 69:438–451 - PubMed
    1. Yedjou CG, Tchounwou PB, Payton M et al. (2017) Assessing the racial and ethnic disparities in breast cancer mortality in the United States. Int J Environ Res Public Health 14:E486. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Green C, Hart-Johnson T, Loeffler D (2011) Cancer-related chronic pain: examining quality of life in diverse cancer survivors. Cancer 117:1994–2003 - PubMed
    1. van den Beuken-van Everdingenvan den M, de Rijke J, Kessels A, Schouten A, van Kleef M, Patijn J (2007) Prevalence of pain in patients with cancer: a systematic review of the past 40 years. Ann Oncol. 18:1437–1449 - PubMed
    1. Shi Q, Smith TG, Michonski JD, Stein KD, Kaw C, Cleeland CS (2011) Symptom burden in cancer survivors 1 year after diagnosis: a report from the American Cancer Society’s Studies of Cancer Survivors. Cancer 117:2779–2790 - PMC - PubMed