Pain-related and psychological factors mediate the effect of personality on health-related quality of life. A study in breast cancer survivors with persistent pain

Tommi Aho; Hanna Harno; Jari Lipsanen; Eija Kalso; Reetta Sipilä

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1063920

Pain-related and psychological factors mediate the effect of personality on health-related quality of life. A study in breast cancer survivors with persistent pain

Front Psychol. 2023 Jul 7:14:1063920. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1063920. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Tommi Aho¹, Hanna Harno^{1

2

3}, Jari Lipsanen⁴, Eija Kalso^{1

2

5}, Reetta Sipilä^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Anaesthesiology, Intensive Care and Pain Medicine, University of Helsinki and Helsinki University Hospital, Helsinki, Finland.
² Sleep Well Research Programme, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.
³ Clinical Neurosciences, Neurology, University of Helsinki and Helsinki University Hospital, Helsinki, Finland.
⁴ Department of Psychology and Logopedics, Faculty of Medicine, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.
⁵ Department of Pharmacology, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.

Abstract

Introduction: Personality characteristics affect the long-term well-being and health-related quality of life (HrQoL) of breast cancer (BC) survivors. Persistent pain significantly affects psychosocial well-being and HrQoL in this patient group. We studied the effects of temperament and character via pain-related and psychological factors on dimensions of HrQoL in BC survivors.

Methods: We studied 273 patients who had been treated for BC and who reported persistent pain at any site of the body in Brief Pain Inventory. The patients were recruited from a longitudinal cohort of patients 4-9 years after surgery for BC. Short-Form-36 inventory was used to assess physical and mental dimensions of HrQoL and Temperament and Character Inventory to assess dimensions of temperament and character. We used parallel mediation modeling for studying effects of temperament and character on physical and mental HrQoL.

Results: A significant total effect was found for harm avoidance (HA) temperament (β_total = -0.665, p < 0.001) and character dimensions self-directedness (SD) (β_total = 0.609, p = 0.001) and cooperativeness (CO) (β_total = 0.584, p = 0.028) on physical and mental HrQoL. Additionally, different combinations of pain-related and psychological variables fully mediated the indirect effects of HA, SD, and CO on physical and mental HrQoL.

Discussion: HA temperament is a potential emotional vulnerability factor for psychological burden and impaired HrQoL in BC survivors. Character dimensions SD and CO may protect from the negative effect of mood on HrQoL. The results provide new insights about the risk-and target-factors for clinical interventions and effective pain management to improve psychosocial well-being and HrQoL in BC survivors.

Keywords: breast cancer; health-related quality of life; persistent pain; personality; temperament and character.