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eCAM Advance Access originally published online on June 27, 2006
eCAM 2006 3(4):523-531; doi:10.1093/ecam/nel042
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© 2006 The Author(s).
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by-nc/2.0/uk/) which permits unrestricted non-commerical use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

A Five-year Follow-up of Quality of Life in Women with Breast Cancer in Anthroposophic and Conventional Care

Marianne Carlsson1, Maria Arman2, Marie Backman3, Ursula Flatters4, Thomas Hatschek5 and Elisabeth Hamrin6

1 Department of Public Health and Caring Sciences, Caring Sciences, Uppsala University Stockholm, 2 Department of Welfare and Care, Faculty of Health Sciences, Linköping University Stockholm, 3 The Swedish Red Cross University College of Nursing Stockholm, 4 The Vidar Clinic Järna, 5 Department of Oncology, Karolinska Hospital Stockholm, and 6 Department of Medicine and Care, Clinical Pharmacology, Faculty of Health Sciences, Linköping University Sweden

Complementary and alternative medicine is used by many cancer patients in most parts of the world, and its use is increasing. The aim of the present study was to examine, over 5 years, the perceived quality of life/life satisfaction in two samples of women with breast cancer who were treated with anthroposophic care or conventional medical treatment only. Data from admission, after 1 year and after 5 years are used for the comparisons. On admission to the study the women in anthroposophic care perceived their quality of life to be lower than that of the women in the conventional treatment group, especially for emotional, cognitive and social functioning and overall quality of life. Sixty women who actively chose treatment with anthroposophic medicine and 60 individually matched women treated with conventional medicine participated. Quality of life was measured by the EORTC QLQ-C30 and the Life Satisfaction Questionnaire. Twenty-six women within anthroposophic care and 31 women within conventional medicine survived the 5 years. Effect size (ES) estimation favored the anthroposophic group in seven of the subscales mostly measuring emotional functioning. The ES for four of the subscales favored the conventional treatment group, mostly concerning physical functioning. After 5 years there were improvements in overall quality of life and in emotional and social functioning compared to admission for the women in anthroposophic care. The improvements took place between admission and 1 year, but not further on. Only minor improvements were found in the matching group.

Keywords: complementary and alternative medicine – EORTC QLQ-C30 – Life Satisfaction Questionnaire

For reprints and all correspondence: Marianne Carlsson, Department of Public Health and Caring Sciences, Caring Sciences, Uppsala University, Uppsala Science park, SE-751 83 Uppsala, Sweden. Tel: +46-18-611-3422; Fax: +46-18-511-657; E-mail: Marianne.Carlsson{at}pubcare.uu.se


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