Partnership Status and Socioeconomic Factors in Relation to Health Behavior Changes after a Diagnosis of Ductal Carcinoma In Situ.

BACKGROUND: Change in health behaviors can occur among women newly diagnosed with ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS). We sought to understand whether partnership status and socioeconomic status (SES) affected behavioral changes in body weight, physical activity, alcohol consumption, and smoking.
METHODS: The Wisconsin In Situ Cohort (WISC) study comprises 1,382 women diagnosed with DCIS with information on demographics, SES factors, and pre- and post-DCIS diagnosis health-related behaviors. Logistic regression models were used to determine the association between partnership status, education, and income with change in behavior variables.
RESULTS: Higher educational attainment was associated with lower likelihood of stopping physical activity [OR, 0.45; 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.32-0.63; college vs. high school degree], or starting to drink alcohol (OR, 0.34; 95% CI, 0.15-0.80). Results suggested that higher family income was associated with lower likelihood of gaining >5% body mass index (P = 0.07) or stopping physical activity (P = 0.09). Living with a partner was not strongly associated with behavior changes.
CONCLUSION: Higher educational attainment and higher income, but not living with a partner, were associated with positive health behaviors after a DCIS diagnosis. IMPACT: The associations between higher educational attainment and, to a lesser extent, higher income with positive health behaviors underscore the importance of considering SES when identifying those at risk for negative behavioral change after DCIS diagnosis. ©2015 American Association for Cancer Research.