Exploring Loneliness, Social Factors, and Clinical Correlates of C-reactive Protein in African American Breast Cancer Survivors.

Kelsie Campbell, Fatimata Sanogo, Trista A Beard, Melanie S Jefferson, Bodour Salhia, Chanita Hughes Halbert

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Article in Journal of racial and ethnic health disparities, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

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5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

6 authors.

Kelsie CampbellDepartment of Population and Public Health Sciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA. kelsieca@usc.edu.ORCID http://orcid.org/0009-0009-4652-6650

Fatimata SanogoDepartment of Population and Public Health Sciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.

Trista A BeardDepartment of Population and Public Health Sciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.

Melanie S JeffersonHollings Cancer Center, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, SC, USA.

Bodour SalhiaNorris Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.

Chanita Hughes HalbertDepartment of Population and Public Health Sciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

importanceAfrican American women experience disproportionately high breast cancer morbidity and mortality, including early onset, more aggressive tumor subtypes, and poorer survival outcomes. Chronic psychosocial stress has been shown to dysregulate hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis and sympathetic nervous system activity, promoting low-grade systemic inflammation and altering immune signaling within the tumor microenvironment. However, few studies have examined how stress-related psychosocial factors, such as loneliness, contribute to inflammatory processes in African American breast cancer survivors.

objectiveTo examine the association between loneliness and other social, socioeconomic, and clinical factors with C-Reactive Protein (CRP) levels, an established marker of systemic inflammation, in African American breast cancer survivors.

designExploratory pilot, cross-sectional study.

settingNCI-designated Cancer Center.

participantsAfrican American women (n = 61) diagnosed with Stage I-IIIa breast cancer who completed the UCLA Loneliness Scale and provided blood samples that were used to measure CRP as part of a laboratory-based study of stress reactivity. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES: The primary outcome was CRP level (mg/L), and the primary predictor was the total score on the 3-item UCLA Loneliness Scale. Linear regression models were used to examine the association between loneliness and log-transformed CRP levels, adjusting for age, body mass index (BMI), financial strain, multimorbidity status, employment, and marital status. CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: In this exploratory pilot study, loneliness was not significantly associated with CRP levels in African American breast cancer survivors. However, significant associations were observed between CRP levels and financial strain, multimorbidity status, and higher BMI. These findings underscore the need for greater conceptual clarity in distinguishing the components of social disconnection in relation to the inflammatory processes. Interventions addressing financial hardship, obesity, and multimorbidity management in survivorship care may help mitigate chronic inflammation and improve long-term health outcomes in a population that continues to experience breast cancer disparities.

Indexed as

African American womenBreast cancer survivorshipC-reactive proteinHealth disparitiesInflammationLoneliness

Identifiers

PMID42295699

DOI10.1177/0022146513485244

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.