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
. 2020 Aug;14(4):494-503.
doi: 10.1007/s11764-020-00866-y. Epub 2020 Mar 10.

A telephone-based education and support intervention for Rural Breast Cancer Survivors: a randomized controlled trial comparing two implementation strategies in rural Florida

Karen Meneses  1   2 , Maria Pisu  3   4 , Andres Azuero  1 , Rachel Benz  1 , Xiaogang Su  5 , Patrick McNees  6   7
Affiliations
Randomized Controlled Trial

A telephone-based education and support intervention for Rural Breast Cancer Survivors: a randomized controlled trial comparing two implementation strategies in rural Florida

Karen Meneses et al. J Cancer Surviv. 2020 Aug.

Abstract

Purpose: To compare two implementation telephone-based strategies of an evidence-based educational and support intervention to Rural Breast Cancer Survivors (RBCS) in which education was delivered early or after the support component.

Methods: Florida RBCS participated in a 12-month randomized clinical trial (RCT) with two arms: Early Education and Support (EE-S) and Support and Delayed Education (S-DE). Arms differed in the timing of 6 support and 3 education sessions. Main outcome was quality of life (QOL, SF-36 physical and mental composite scores [PCS, MCS]). Secondary outcomes were depressive symptoms (Centers for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale, CES-D), mood (Profile of Mood States, POMS), and social support (Medical Outcomes Study Social Support Survey, MOS-SSS). Outcomes were analyzed longitudinally using repeated measures models fitted with linear mixed methods.

Results: Of 432 RBCS (mean 25.6 months from diagnosis), about 48% were 65+, 73% married/partnered, and 28% with ≤high school education. There were no differences between EE-S and S-DE in demographics or outcomes at baseline (mean (standard deviation): SF-36 PCS, 44.88 (10.6) vs. 45.08 (10.6); MCS, 49.45 (11.1) vs. 48.1 (11.9); CES-D, 10.11 (9.8) vs. 10.86 (10.5); POMS-SF, 23.95 (38.6) vs. 26.35 (38.8); MOS-SSS, 79.2 (21.2) vs. 78.66 (21.2)) or over time. One exception was slightly worse mean scores at month 9 in MCS (Cohen's d, - 0.22; 95% CI, - 0.38, - 0.06) and POMS (Cohen's d, 0.23; 95% CI, 0.07, 0.39) for EE-S vs. S-DE.

Conclusions: The implementation strategies were equivalent.

Implications for cancer survivors: Enhancing support may be considered before delivering not-in-person interventions to RBCS.

Keywords: Breast cancer; Cancer survivorship; Implementation; Neoplasm; Quality of life; Rural health.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

FIGURE 1:
FIGURE 1:. RBCS CONSORT FLOW CHART
EE-S = Early Education and Support; S-DE= Support and Delayed Education
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. American Cancer Society. Cancer Treatment and Survivorship Facts & Figures 2019–2021. Atlanta: American Cancer Society; 2019.
    1. Aaronson NK, Mattioli V, Minton O, et al. Beyond treatment - Psychosocial and behavioural issues in cancer survivorship research and practice. EJC Suppl. 2014;12: 54–64. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Forsythe LP, Kent EE, Weaver KE, et al. Receipt of psychosocial care among cancer survivors in the United States. J Clin Oncol. 2013;31: 1961–1969. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Pirl WF, Jacobsen PB, Deshields TL. Opportunities for improving psychosocial care for cancer survivors. J Clin Oncol. 2013;31: 1920–1921. - PubMed
    1. 2010 Census Urban and rural classifications. https://www.census.gov/geo/reference/ua/urban-rural-2010.html Accessed 15 March 2018.

Publication types