Cancer Survivors With Clinically Significant Distress
Conditions
Keywords
Cancer, social-networking intervention, cancer-related distress, internet health services, intervention delivery
Brief summary
It is hypothesized that the treatment group will show greater improvements in quality of life and mood disturbance compared to the control group and that greater levels of engagement with the intervention materials will be associated with greater improvements in mood and quality of life.
Detailed description
Individuals with cancer face an array of psychosocial needs, and it has been estimated that up to 35% of cancer survivors experience clinically-significant levels of distress. Psychosocial interventions may be effective for improving quality of life and reducing levels of mood disturbance in these patients. Unfortunately, barriers to accessing psychosocial intervention are common, and many are unable to access those services. Internet- based psychosocial interventions improve accessibility of care and offer additional methodological advantages, including the ability to easily collect self-report data, track exposure to the intervention, and evaluate effects of specific intervention components. The proposed study will evaluate whether a website developed specifically for providing psychological treatment and enhancing communication between cancer survivors can improve distress among cancer survivors who indicate that they have high levels of distress. If successful, the study will also provide valuable information needed to improve the treatment and to adequately conduct a larger trial comparing internet-based and face-to-face treatments.
Interventions
BEHAVIORALonline social-networking intervention
Sponsors
National Institutes of Health (NIH)
Loma Linda University
Study design
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
PARALLEL
Primary purpose
SUPPORTIVE_CARE
Masking
NONE
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
18 Years to No maximum
Healthy volunteers
No
Inclusion criteria
1. at least 18 years of age, 2. previous cancer diagnosis other than non-melanoma skin cancer, 4\) fluent in English, 5) routine access to the Internet, and 6) presence of greater than mild distress as identified by having distress greater than or equal to 4 on initial screening with the Distress Thermometer
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Change in -Overall Psychological Functioning (OQ-45) | 3-month change | The OQ-45 measures the global functioning of a client and is composed of 3 subscales that measure subjective discomfort (intrapsychic functioning), interpersonal relationships, and social role performance. The OQ-45 has adequate internal consistency (a = .93) and reliability (r = .84) (Lambert, et al., 2004). |
| Change in-Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depress (CES-D) scale | 3-month change | The CES-D is a self-report measure that consists of 20 items rated on a 4-point Likert scale to assess depressive symptoms experienced in the previous week. The CES-D has demonstrated excellent reliability and validity (Radloff, 1977). The standard cutoff score of 16 will be used to identify depression. |
| Anxiety | 3-month change | Anxiety subscale of the brief Profile of Mood States (b-POMS; Shacham, 1983), which utilizes 37 descriptive mood adjectives to describe how a participant felt during the past week on a 5-point Likert scale. Specifically look at anxiety (anx subscale of POMS), vigor (subscale of POMS), and fatigue (subscale of POMS). |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Fatigue | 3-month change | Fatigue subscale of the Profile of Mood States questionnaire |
| Vigor | 3-month change | Vigor subscale of the Profile of Mood States questionnaire. |
Countries
United States
Outcome results
None listed