Association between life satisfaction, social support and general health status: A comparison of cancer survivors and respondents without cancer, BRFSS, 2009

Background: Research has shown a relationship between life satisfaction, social support, and self-reported health status among persons with chronic illnesses. We examined these associations using data from the 2009 Core Section of the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), with a focus on cancer.Methods: BRFSS is a state based-random digit dialing telephone survey among non-institutionalized adults aged >=18 years. In 2009, 58,699 individuals responded yes to “Ever being told by a health professional that they had cancer” (cancer survivors) and 340,919 individuals responded no to the question. Logistic regression models adjusted for current age, gender, insurance, employment, education, marital status and race. SUDAAN software accounted for the complex sampling design.Results: Overall, 15% of the respondents were cancer survivors. Higher percentages of cancer survivors were older than 64 (28% vs. 16%), had health insurance (95% vs. 89%) and reported their health status as fair/poor (29% vs. 17%) compared to respondents without cancer. Cancer survivors and respondents without cancer had similar percentages of suboptimal social/emotional support (21.5 vs. 22.1%, respectively) and life satisfaction (6%). Those reporting life dissatisfaction were 3.7 times more likely to report fair/poor health (OR [95%CI] = 3.7 [3.38-3.97]). This association between life satisfaction and health status did not differ for cancer survivors and those without cancer. Conclusions: Life dissatisfaction was a key determinant in persons reporting fair/poor health, independent of cancer status. These findings emphasize the need for strategies to promote overall well-being, especially life satisfaction, for the improvement of general health.