OBJECTIVES

: The purpose of this study was to analyze results from the Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES) to explore the potential impact of comorbidities on health utilities in Korean patients with breast cancer.

METHODS

: KNHANES was analyzed for respondents who reported having breast cancer and was under treatment. Responses from a total of 118 patients with breast cancer undergoing treatment were captured in the KNHANES from 2008 to 2018. Their utility values were calculated using data from the three level version of the Euro-Quality of Life-5 Dimension (EQ-5D) that was incorporated into the survey. The comorbidities assessed were hypertension (HTN), diabetes (DM), myocardial infarction (MI), osteoarthritis (OA), osteoporosis (OP), thyroid disease (TD), rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and dyslipidemia (DYL). We performed t-testing to compare the utilities of breast cancer patients with and without each comorbidity.

RESULTS

: Total 118 patients were analyzed for this analysis. 53% of breast cancer patients had at least one comorbidity. The average EQ-5D scores of patients with breast cancer only (n=55) was 0.96 which was higher than the average score of patients with associated comorbidities. Breast cancer patients with MI (n=3), DYL (n=31), OA (n=25) or HTN (n=33) had significantly lower EQ-5D scores than those who did not have any comorbidity (0.79, 0.82, 0.82, 0.86, respectively p<0.05). Breast cancer patients who had RA (n=5), DM (n=13), OP (n=6) and TD (n=11) tended to have lower EQ-5D scores compared with those who did not have (0.69, 0.89, 0.91, 0.94, respectively; p>0.05).

CONCLUSIONS

: Patients with breast cancer in addition to other comorbidities experienced lower utilities than patients with breast cancer alone in Korea. While research with a larger sample size is necessary to further quantify this link, supportive care management for breast cancer should take into consideration existing comorbidities that may affect patient’s health utilities.