Open AccessDoes a self management intervention lower distress in woman diagnosed with breast cancer? 1
Author(s) -
LOH SIEW YIM,
PACKER TANYA,
TAN FOO LAN,
XAVIER MONICA,
QUEK KIA FATT,
YIP CHING HAR
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
japanese psychological research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.392
H-Index - 30
eISSN - 1468-5884
pISSN - 0021-5368
DOI - 10.1111/j.1468-5884.2011.00491.x
Subject(s) - breast cancer , anxiety , medicine , depression (economics) , distress , cohort , analysis of variance , cohort study , psychological distress , cancer , stress management , repeated measures design , clinical psychology , psychiatry , statistics , mathematics , economics , macroeconomics
Psychological distress is particularly common with any cancer diagnosis. This paper examined the psychological distress in a cohort of women newly diagnosed with breast cancer and postulates on the underlying theory. A longitudinal study of a cohort of women ( n = 147) diagnosed with breast cancer (within the past 1 year), was conducted at University Malaya Medical Centre, Kuala Lumpur. Data were collected at baseline and at post 4‐week intervention. Analysis of variance was conducted to examine for any significant differences in the change‐scores between the experimental group ( n = 69) and the control group ( n = 78). Using the change scores, analyses of variance showed significant differences between groups for stress, F (1, 140) = 13.68, p < .0001, anxiety F (1, 140) = 8.44, p < .004, and depression, F (1, 140) = 11.57, p < .0001. Levels of stress, anxiety and depression generally decreased significantly in the experimental groups, p < .05, but either maintained or increased in the control group. This study indicates that the level of psychological distress of women with breast cancer can be ameliorated with a 4‐week self‐management intervention. Lower stress levels were also found in women who reported engagement in higher physical activity than women with low physical activity.