Department of Community Health Sciences, Boston University School of Public Health, 801 Massachusetts Avenue, Crosstown Center, Boston, MA 02118, USA.
Qual Life Res. 2012 Mar;21(2):225-36. doi: 10.1007/s11136-011-9947-y. Epub 2011 Jun 10.
Sexual minority women, e.g., lesbians and bisexuals, are an underserved population but not much is known about their quality of life (QOL) after a breast cancer diagnosis. For this reason, this study examines the physical and mental QOL and its association with sexual orientation in a cohort of long-term nonrecurring breast cancer survivors.
Survivors were recruited from a cancer registry and additional sexual minority survivors through convenience methods. Data were collected via telephone survey from all 438 survivors, who were disease free and diagnosed with nonmetastatic breast cancer an average of 5 years earlier. Sexual orientation was the primary independent factor, and QOL, measured with the SF-12, was the outcome. Demographic and clinical factors were considered as correlates.
Sexual orientation was not significantly associated with survivors' physical or mental QOL. The majority of survivors reported good physical and mental QOL. The demographic and clinical factors explained about one-third of the variation in survivors' physical QOL, but did not account for most of survivors' mental QOL.
The lack of an association between sexual orientation and QOL suggests that if there is a link, it does not relate directly to clinical and demographic factors. Future studies need to identify areas of similarity and difference between sexual minority and heterosexual survivors and mechanisms to explain the similarity in QOL.
性少数群体女性（例如女同性恋者和双性恋者）是一个服务不足的群体，但对于她们在被诊断出患有乳腺癌后的生活质量（QOL）知之甚少。出于这个原因，本研究在一组长期非复发性乳腺癌幸存者中检查了身体和心理健康质量及其与性取向的关联。
通过癌症登记处和便利方法从性少数群体幸存者中招募幸存者。通过电话调查从所有 438 名无疾病且被诊断出患有非转移性乳腺癌平均 5 年前的幸存者那里收集数据。性取向是主要的独立因素，SF-12 测量的 QOL 是结果。考虑了人口统计学和临床因素作为相关因素。
性取向与幸存者的身体或心理健康质量没有显著关联。大多数幸存者报告了良好的身体和心理健康质量。人口统计学和临床因素解释了幸存者身体 QOL 变化的约三分之一，但并没有解释大多数幸存者的心理 QOL。
性取向与 QOL 之间缺乏关联表明，如果存在关联，它与临床和人口统计学因素没有直接关系。未来的研究需要确定性少数群体和异性恋幸存者之间的相似和不同之处，以及解释 QOL 相似性的机制。
