Scientists from the Kaiser Permanente Northern California Division of Research found that women who have high-quality Personal Relationships are more likely to survive breast cancer.
Similar studies done in the past have stated that having a large personal network of friends, relations, spouses or partners and other religious ties could increase a woman's chances of surviving breast cancer. Now, Scientists from the Kaiser Permanente Northern California Division of Research have found that not just the size of the network but also the quality of relationship a woman shares with people in that networks effects the chances of a woman surviving breast cancer.
"We found that women with small social networks had a significantly higher risk of mortality than those with large networks," said Candyce H. Kroenke, ScD, MPH, a research scientist with the Kaiser Permanente Northern California Division of Research and lead author of the study.
The study found that socially isolated women were 34 percent more likely to die from breast cancer or other causes than socially integrated women. Specifically, larger social networks were "unrelated to recurrence or breast cancer mortality, (they) were associated with lower mortality from all causes," the authors wrote.
The study included asking the women participants to fill out a survey which asked them to rate their relationship quality on a scale of 5. For example, the questions included, "My family has accepted my illness," "family communication about my illness is poor," and "I feel distant from my friends." Based on their survey results, the women were additionally characterized as having high or low levels of social support.
"Women with small networks and high levels of support were not at greater risk than those with large networks, but those with small networks and low levels of support were," Kroenke said. "In fact, women with small networks and low levels of support were 61 percent more likely to die from breast cancer and other causes than those with small networks and high levels of support."
"We also found that when family relationships were less supportive, community and religious ties were critical to survival. This suggests that both the quality of relationships, rather than just the size of the network, matters to survival, and that community relationships matter when relationships with friends and family are less supportive."
