The impact of a brief coping skills intervention on adherence to breast self-examination among first-degree relatives of newly diagnosed breast cancer patients
✍ Scribed by Janet Audrain; Barbara Rimer; David Cella; Michael Stefanek; Judy Garber; Marie Pennanen; Kathy Helzlsouer; Victor Vogel; Ting Hsiang Lin; Caryn Lerman
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 1999
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 167 KB
- Volume
- 8
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 1057-9249
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
The present investigation sought to determine (1) the impact of a single session stress management/coping intervention (problem-solving training; PST) versus a general health counseling (GHC) control condition on breast self-examination (BSE) adherence among relatives of newly diagnosed breast cancer patients, and (2) whether women with heightened perceived risk of breast cancer and/or cancer specific distress at baseline were more likely to improve their BSE adherence following PST. The participants were 510 women age 20 -75 who had at least one first-degree relative with breast cancer. All of the participants completed a baseline telephone interview, an intervention (PST versus GHC), and a 3-month follow-up telephone interview. The results revealed a 36% overall improvement in BSE adherence, with no significant between-group difference in improvement ( 2 = 0.03, p = 0.87). The logistic regression analysis of improvement in BSE adherence revealed a statistically significant cancer-specific distress by treatment interaction (p= 0.04). Among women who received PST, those with high levels of cancer-specific distress were two times more likely to improve in BSE adherence than women low in cancer-specific distress. There was no effect of cancer-specific distress in the control condition. These results suggest that women with a family history of breast cancer who have high levels of distress may be most likely to benefit from behavioral coping skills intervention to promote adherence to breast cancer screening.