LIFE STAISFACTION AND SELF-RATED HEALTH AMONG OLDER ADULT, LONG-TERM CANCER SURVIVORS

Prior research has shown that having had cancer and related treatment have long term effects on the quality of life of survivors. For older adults, these effects represent additional vulnerabilities that survivors experience with advancing age. This research examines the relative importance that cancer-related health factor and age-related health factors have on the life satisfaction and self-rated health of older long-term survivors. These are examined in the context of important covariates including race, gender, education and marital status. This NCI funded research utilizes path analysis of data from a sample of 321 older (age 60+) long-term (5+ years since diagnosis) survivors. The respondents were randomly selected from a tumor registry of a major university hospital cancer center from among those with breast, prostate and colorectal cancers, the most common survivable cancers among older adults. The path model documents the important roles that both cancer and non-cancer health factors play in the life satisfaction in long-term survivors. The analysis also identifies the major mediating role of self-rated health in this relationship (beta =.32). Important predictors are non-cancer symptoms (beta =-.24) and prior treatment complexity (-.21). while current cancer symptoms is an important predictor of self-rate health. The findings suggest that medical care and mental health practitioners who work with older adults need to be aware of the added vulnerability experienced by their older patients who have a medical history of cancer.