Predictors of Quality of Life in Patients with Breast Cancer-Related Lymphedema: Effect of Age, Lymphedema Severity, and Anxiety

Background: Patients with breast cancer-related lymphedema (BCRL) have lower quality of life (QOL). However, some important predictors, such as the effect of age, lymphedema severity, depression, and anxiety, have not yet been discovered. The overall objective of this study is to explore the QOL predictors associated with BCRL in China. Methods and Results: A cross-sectional design was conducted. Data were collected before treatment, including sociodemographic characteristics (height, heaviness, age, education level, work status, marital status, and economic status), clinical characteristics (surgical method, clinical cancer stage, lymphedema severity, and lymphedema duration), the hospital anxiety (HA) and depression scale, and the functional assessment of cancer therapy-breast quality of life instrument. Univariate analysis or bivariate correlation was first made to explore the correlation of QOL with sociodemographic/clinical characteristics, anxiety, and depression. The multiple linear regression model was used to identify the independent QOL predictors. Seventy-one patients with BCRL were recruited. Age, education level, work status, family income, lymphedema duration, lymphedema severity, and HA and hospital depression scale scores are significantly correlated with QOL (p < 0.05). Age, lymphedema severity, and HA accounted for 85.9% in QOL (F = 62.76, p < 0.001). Conclusions: Age, lymphedema, and anxiety are the most important QOL predictors. Therefore, it is very important to establish a BCRL prevention system and pay attention to psychological distress in the patients with BCRL.