A culturally adapted, multidisciplinary psychoeducation program for early-stage breast cancer survivors in Asia: A randomized, controlled trial

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Chan, Alexandre
Terence, NG
Oh, Suan Kai
Eyob, Tewodros
Shwe, Maung
Gan, Yan Xiang
Chan, Raymond
Dent, Rebecca Alexandra
Ng, Raymond CH
Tan, Mabel
Goh, Brandon
Tan, Yee Pin
Fan, Gilbert
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2016
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Chicago, USA

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Abstract

Background: As cancer mortality rates improve in Asia, there is an increasing need to improve the transition to post-treatment survivorship care. However, culturally appropriate standardized survivorship programs are lacking in this region. This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of a culturally adapted psychoeducation program (PE) compared with usual care (UC) to reduce distress and symptoms in Asian breast cancer survivors who have completed adjuvant chemotherapy. Methods: This was a randomized, controlled trial in 72 Asian early-stage breast cancer survivors who were randomized into either the PE (n = 34) or the UC (n = 38) arms. Participants in the PE arm underwent a weekly multidisciplinary psychoeducation program, delivered in a group format over 3 weeks, based on current recommendations from the United States Institute of Medicine, coupled with cultural adaptation. Both arms were assessed at baseline and 2 months post-intervention using the Rotterdam Symptom Checklist and EORTC-QLQ-C30. Effect sizes were calculated using Cohen’s d. Results: The mean age ± SD of all participants was 53.0 ± 8.9 years, with majority being Chinese (84.7%) and Malay (6.9%). At baseline, clinical characteristics and outcome measures were well balanced in both arms. Comparing to UC, there was a significant lower levels of physical symptom distress (d= 0.76, p = 0.01) and fatigue (d= 0.49, p = 0.04). There was also a trend towards less appetite loss (d= 0.46, p = 0.06), less constipation (d= 0.45, p = 0.06) and activity level improvement (d= 0.37, p = 0.14) in the PE arm comparing to the UC arm. Conclusions: A culturally adapted, multidisciplinary psychoeducation program was effective to reduce physical distress and symptoms in Asian breast cancer survivors.

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Journal of Clinical Oncology

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34

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15_suppl

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Clinical sciences

Oncology and carcinogenesis

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Life Sciences & Biomedicine

Oncology

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Chan, A; Terence, NG; Oh, SK; Eyob, T; Shwe, M; Gan, YX; Chan, R; Dent, RA; Ng, RCH; Tan, M; Goh, B; Tan, YP; Fan, G, A culturally adapted, multidisciplinary psychoeducation program for early-stage breast cancer survivors in Asia: A randomized, controlled trial, Journal of Clinical Oncology, 2016, 34 (15_suppl), pp. 10080