Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Randomized Controlled Trial
. 2015 Jun 1;121(11):1882-90.
doi: 10.1002/cncr.29204. Epub 2015 Feb 24.

Automated pain intervention for underserved minority women with breast cancer

Karen O Anderson  1 , Guadalupe R Palos  2 , Tito R Mendoza  1 , Charles S Cleeland  1 , Kai-Ping Liao  3 , Michael J Fisch  4 , Araceli Garcia-Gonzalez  1 , Alyssa G Rieber  4 , L Arlene Nazario  4 , Vicente Valero  5 , Karin M Hahn  6 , Cheryl L Person  7 , Richard Payne  8
Affiliations
Randomized Controlled Trial

Automated pain intervention for underserved minority women with breast cancer

Karen O Anderson et al. Cancer. .

Abstract

Background: Minority patients with breast cancer are at risk for undertreatment of cancer-related pain. The authors evaluated the feasibility and efficacy of an automated pain intervention for improving pain and symptom management of underserved African American and Latina women with breast cancer.

Methods: Sixty low-income African American and Latina women with breast cancer and cancer-related pain were enrolled in a pilot study of an automated, telephone-based, interactive voice response (IVR) intervention. Women in the intervention group were called twice weekly by the IVR system and asked to rate the intensity of their pain and other symptoms. The patients' oncologists received e-mail alerts if the reported symptoms were moderate to severe. The patients also reported barriers to pain management and received education regarding any reported obstacles.

Results: The proportion of women in both groups reporting moderate to severe pain decreased during the study, but the decrease was significantly greater for the intervention group. The IVR intervention also was associated with improvements in other cancer-related symptoms, including sleep disturbance and drowsiness. Although patient adherence to the IVR call schedule was good, the oncologists who were treating the patients rated the intervention as only somewhat useful for improving symptom management.

Conclusions: The IVR intervention reduced pain and symptom severity for underserved minority women with breast cancer. Additional research on technological approaches to symptom management is needed.

Keywords: assessment; breast cancer; minority groups; pain; symptoms.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
The CONSORT flow diagram illustrates patient flow throughout the study.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Mean pain severity over time for the intervention and control groups is depicted.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Mean severity for disturbed sleep, fatigue, sadness, and emotional distress over time for the intervention and control groups is depicted.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Anderson KO, Green CR, Payne R. Racial and ethnic disparities in pain: causes and consequences of unequal care. J Pain. 2009;10(12):1187–1204. - PubMed
    1. Fisch MJ, Lee JW, Weiss M, et al. Prospective, observational study of pain and analgesic prescribing in medical oncology outpatients with breast, colorectal, lung, or prostate cancer. J Clin Oncol. 2012;30(16):1980–1988. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Payne R, Medina E, Hampton JW. Quality of life concerns in patients with breast cancer: evidence for disparity of outcomes and experiences in pain management and palliative care among African-American women. Cancer. 2003;97(1 Suppl):311–317. - PubMed
    1. Anderson KO, Mendoza TR, Payne R, et al. Pain education for underserved minority cancer patients: a randomized controlled trial. J Clin Oncol. 2004;22(24):4918–4925. - PubMed
    1. Basch E, Artz D, Dulko D, et al. Patient online self-reporting of toxicity symptoms during chemotherapy. J Clin Oncol. 2005;23(15):3552–3561. - PubMed

Publication types