Who benefits from a psychosocial counselling versus educational intervention to improve psychological quality of life in prostate cancer survivors?

Abstract

Objective: We examined selected survivor characteristics to determine what factors might moderate the response to two psychosocial interventions.

Design: Seventy-one prostate cancer survivors (PCSs) were randomly assigned to either a telephone-delivered health education (THE) intervention or a telephone-delivered interpersonal counselling (TIP-C) intervention.

Measures: Psychological quality of life (QOL) outcomes included depression, negative and positive affect, and perceived stress.

Results: For three of the psychological outcomes (depression, negative affect and stress), there were distinct advantages from participating in THE. For example, more favourable depression outcomes occurred when men were older, had lower prostate specific functioning, were in active chemotherapy, had lower social support from friends and lower cancer knowledge. Participating in the TIP-C provided a more favourable outcome for positive affect when men had higher education, prostate specific functioning, social support from friends and cancer knowledge.

Conclusion: Unique survivor characteristics must be considered when recommending interventions that might improve psychological QOL in PCSs. Future research must examine who benefits most and from what components of psychosocial interventions to enable clinicians to recommend appropriate psychosocial care.

Figure 1. Example of Raw Data and Estimation of Log Rhythmic Slope

Note. Dashed line represents raw scores on CES-D scale. Solid line represents estimated individual growth curve slope.

Figure 2. Illustration of Age × Intervention Condition Interaction on CES-D Slopes

Note. Plotted values represent slopes. Therefore positive values indicate increases in depression over time and negative values indicate decreases in depression over time.

Figure 3. Illustration of Social Support from Friends × Intervention Condition Interaction on Positive Affect Slopes

Note. Plotted values represent slopes. Therefore positive values indicate increases in positive affect over time and negative values indicate decreases in positive affect over time.