Preliminary Efficacy of an Occupation-Oriented Purpose in Life Intervention After Breast Cancer

Abstract

Background. Purpose in life is important to health and well-being; purpose disruption often goes unidentified after breast cancer. Purpose. To evaluate the efficacy of a purpose renewal intervention and utility of a screening question for identifying people with purpose-related distress. Method. In this prospective pretest-posttest study, participants with breast cancer received an 8-session purpose renewal group intervention (n = 35). Participants completed standardized measures of meaning and purpose at pretest, posttest, and two-month follow-up and a forced-choice Purpose Status Question (PSQ) at pretest. Findings. Participants made statistically significant pretest-to-posttest and pretest-to-follow-up improvements. The PSQ demonstrated construct validity: 40% of participants lacked purpose direction at pretest and this subgroup made significantly greater improvements than participants who reported purpose direction at pretest. Implications. The PSQ warrants further study as a screener to identify people with purpose-related distress. Many breast cancer survivors may benefit from a purpose in life intervention; a subgroup may benefit more.

Keywords: Breast cancer; Cancer du sein; Cancer rehabilitation; Existantial distress‌; Occupational therapy; Survivorship; détresse existentielle; ergothérapie; réadaptation à la suite d’un cancer; survie.