Symptom Burden Among Cancer Survivors: Impact of Age and Comorbidity
Open accessAbstract
BACKGROUND: Previous research among specific cancer populations has shown high but variable symptom burden; however, very little is known about its extent and pattern among the entire population of US cancer survivors, which is more clinically relevant to primary care physicians. METHODS: To determine the prevalence of ongoing symptom burden among cancer survivors and compare it with the general population without cancer, we analyzed data from the 2002 National Health Interview Survey, which included 1,904 cancer survivors and 29,092 controls. Main outcome measures included self-reported ongoing pain, psychological distress, and insomnia. Multivariate logistic regression models were used to adjust for confounders and test for interactions. RESULTS: The rates of ongoing pain, psychological distress, and insomnia among cancer survivors were 34%, 26%, and 30%, respectively, and were significantly higher (all P<.001) than controls without a history of cancer (18%, 16%, and 17%). Compared with controls in the same age groups, younger survivors (younger than 50) were much more likely to report ongoing symptoms than older survivors (older than 64); adjusted odds ratios were 2.96 and 1.36 for pain in the respective age groups (P<.001). Comorbidities also interact with cancer status and contribute to a marked increase in reports of ongoing symptom burden among cancer survivors, with a greater number of comorbidities leading to greater degree of symptom burden in a dose-dependent manner (P<.001). CONCLUSIONS: The symptom burden among cancer survivors on a population level is substantial and can be impacted by other comorbidities. Thus, engaging primary care physicians in the design, testing, and implementation of effective interventions is important to reduce the symptom burden among cancer survivors.
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
For many young adult cancer survivors, the impact of treatment is significant and long-lasting, including physical symptoms such as pain and fatigue, psychological distress, and increased risk of long-term health problems such as second cancers and early-onset cardiovascular disease.
“For many YA cancer survivors, the impact of treatment is significant and long-lasting, including difficult physical symptoms (e.g., pain, fatigue) [4–6], psychological distress [6–10], and an increased risk of long-term health problems (e.g., second cancers, early-onset cardiovascular disease) [11–13].”
From Improving symptom management for survivors of young adult cancer: rationale and study protocol for a pilot randomized controlled trial (2024) · cites this paper as [5]
The Abstract reports higher rates of ongoing pain and psychological distress among cancer survivors, with the greatest relative symptom burden in those younger than 50. The Discussion says pain and psychological distress persisted over time, but the study did not assess fatigue or specifically study young adults. The second-cancer and cardiovascular-risk examples are attached to different citations in the citing sentence. (LLM, conf=0.86)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
The citation lists haven’t been fetched yet
References 40 · Cited by 224
Research works printed but not linked: 2
- Portenoy R, Kornblith A, Wong G, et al. Pain in ovarian cancer patients. Prevalence, characteristics, and associated symptoms. Cancer 1994;74:907-15.
- Hosaka T, Aoki T. Depression among cancer pa- tients. Psychiatry Clin Neurosci 1996;50:309 -12.
- Authors
- Mao, J. J., Armstrong, K., Bowman, M. A., Xie, S. X., Kadakia, R., & Farrar, J. T.
- Affiliations
- University of Pennsylvania Health System (US)
- University of Pennsylvania (US)
- Abramson Cancer Center (US)
- Venue
- The Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine
- Published
- 2007-09-01
- Volume
- 20
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- 434-443
- ISSN
- 1557-2625 (ISSN-L)
- 1558-7118
- OpenAlex
- W2126891039
- Cited by
- 224
- References
- 40
- Citations by year
- 2026: 8 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 12 · 2023: 8 · 2022: 12 · 2021: 13 · 2020: 11 · 2019: 17 · 2018: 15 · 2017: 10 · 2016: 12 · 2015: 13 · 2014: 11 · 2013: 15 · 2012: 20
- FWCI
- 4.55
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- The Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Journal of Bioresource Management (submittedVersion)
- Journal of Bioresource Management (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Funders
- University of Pennsylvania
- Health Resources and Services Administration
- U.S. Public Health Service (1 D14 HP 008084)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Oncology › Cancer survivorship and care
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Pediatrics, Perinatology and Child Health › Childhood Cancer Survivors' Quality of Life
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Pulmonary and Respiratory Medicine › Cancer-related cognitive impairment studies
- Keywords
- cancer survivors, symptom burden, ongoing pain, psychological distress, insomnia, comorbidities, age differences, primary care, National Health Interview Survey
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Age Factors, Aged, Female, Health Status, Humans, Sleep Initiation and Maintenance Disorders, Male, Middle Aged, Neoplasms, Pain, Stress, Psychological, United States, Comorbidity, Prevalence, Case-Control Studies, Survivors
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
