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Learning Objective 1: describe evidnece-based interventions to enhance physical, emotional and social adjustment of women with breast cancer and their partners
Learning Objective 2: compare the effects of evidence-based psychoeducational and counseling interventions on physical, emotional, and social adjustment outcomes among women with breast cancer and their partners.
Purpose: To conduct a randomized controlled clinical trial of phase-specific, evidence-based psycho-education and telephone counseling interventions to enhance emotional, physical, and social adjustment in patients with breast cancer and their partners.
Methods: 249 patient-partner dyads were randomly assigned to one of four groups: control group receiving disease management (DM); standardized education via video (SE); telephone counseling (TC), or standardized education with telephone counseling (SE+TC). Data were collected at baseline, the diagnostic, post-surgery, adjuvant therapy, and ongoing recovery phases. Outcome variables included measures of emotional adjustment, physical adjustment, and social adjustment.
Results: Patients showed poorer adjustment over time in the DM group relative to those receiving interventions on selected measures of emotional adjustment. All patients showed improvement over time in overall health and adjustment in social and vocational environments. Partners in all groups exhibited improvement over time for measures of adjustment in the social environment, but no changes in psychological well-being or overall health. Partners in the TC group had poorer scores on physical symptoms compared to the SE+TC group, and contrary to expectation partners in the TC group had poorer vocational scores compared to the DM group.
Conclusions: Findings from this study support the value of phase-specific structured education by video combined with telephone counseling to enhance adjustment to breast cancer in women and their partners.