Financial strain, neighborhood cohesion, and health-related quality of life among rural and urban Spanish-speaking Latina breast cancer survivors

Purpose Among Latina breast cancer survivors, explore associations between rural/urban residence and health-related quality of life (HRQL), and whether associations are moderated by financial strain and low neighborhood cohesion.

Methods We combined baseline data from two randomized controlled trials of a stress management intervention conducted among 151 urban and 153 rural dwelling Latinas with nonmetastatic breast cancer.

Generalized linear models estimated associations between rural/urban status and HRQL (overall, emotional, social-family, physical, and functional well-being), and we examined moderation effects of financial strain and low neighborhood cohesion, controlling for age, marital status, and breast cancer characteristics.

Results Rural women reported better emotional (β = 1.85; 95% CI = 0.37, 3.33), functional (β = 2.23; 95% CI = 0.69, 3.77), and overall (β = 5.68; 95% CI = 1.12, 10.25) well-being than urban women, regardless of degree of financial strain or neighborhood cohesion; moderation effects were not statistically significant.

Financial strain was inversely associated with emotional (β = -2.34; 95% CI = 3.63, -1.05), physical (β = -2.56; 95% CI = -4.12, -1.01), functional (β = -1.61; 95% CI = -2.96, -0.26), and overall (β = -6.67; 95% CI = -10.96, -2.98) well-being.

Low neighborhood cohesion was inversely associated with emotional (β = -1.27; 95% CI = -2.50, -0.04), social-family (β = -1.72; 95% CI = -3.02, -0.42), functional (β = -1.63; 95% CI = -2.92, -0.34), and overall (β = -5.95; 95% CI = 9.76, -2.14) well-being.

Conclusions Rural Latina breast cancer survivors reported better emotional, functional and overall well-being than their urban counterparts.

Greater financial strain and less neighborhood cohesion were associated with worse HRQL on most domains regardless of rural/urban context.

Implications for Cancer Survivors Interventions that focus on increasing perceived neighborhood cohesion and reducing or better managing financial strain, could help improve Latina cancer survivors’ well-being.