Women with medium or low levels of income tend to be edgy after being diagnosed with the pre-cancerous breast condition.

The study suggests that women with financial hardship may benefit from psycho-social interventions that are designed to accommodate their unique needs.

While research suggests that education and financial status, also known as socio-economic status, can affect mental and physical health, few studies have examined its impact on psychological adjustment following a major stressor such as being diagnosed with a potentially serious medical condition.

Janet de Moor, of the Ohio State University (OSU) College of Public Health and colleagues looked at whether socio-economic status affects the development of feelings of anxiety and depression in women after they are diagnosed with ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS), the most common type of non-invasive breast carcinoma.

During the study, 487 women with newly diagnosed DCIS completed questions about socio-demographic, psychosocial, and clinical characteristics at the time of enrollment and again nine months after their diagnosis, said an OSU release.

Researchers found that financial status was inversely associated with distress at the nine month follow up point: women with financial hardship reported higher levels of anxiety and depression than women with no financial hardship.

These findings were published online in Cancer, a journal of the American Cancer Society.