Previous research indicates that younger women (i.e., <or= 50) with breast carcinoma experience greater emotional distress than older women (i.e., > 50) and that coping style is significantly related to the psychosocial adjustment of women with this disease. The purpose of this study was to evaluate through a randomized controlled trial the effectiveness of a problem-solving training intervention designed to empower women with breast carcinoma to cope with a range of difficulties when diagnosed in mid-life.
The study population consisted of women aged 50 years or younger who had no prior history of breast carcinoma, were diagnosed with Stage I-IIIA tumors, and for whom a first course of chemotherapy had been initiated recently. The intervention consisted of two in-person and four telephone sessions with an oncology nurse who provided problem-solving skills training and informational materials to the women over a 12-week period. All subjects were assessed for physical and psychosocial adjustment through telephone and mailed surveys at baseline, at 4 -months, and at 8 months.
Of 183 eligible women, 164 participated (a 90% participation rate), 149 of whom completed the study (a 91% completion rate). The subjects had significantly lower unmet needs and better mental health at the 4-month assessment. The intervention significantly decreased the number and severity of difficulties experienced by women with average or good problem-solving skills at 8 months, but was not effective in alleviating or resolving the problems encountered by women with poor problem-solving skills, relative to the control group.
We conclude that this problem-solving therapy-based home care training intervention is an effective method of helping the majority of women with breast carcinoma to reduce the stresses associated with the diagnosis and treatment of cancer in mid-life.
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 17. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 09 April 2013.
All research outputs
#2,709,518
of 34,364,397 outputs
Outputs from Cancer (0008543X)
#2,372
of 18,979 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#5,128
of 176,286 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Cancer (0008543X)
#7
of 91 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 34,364,397 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 92nd percentile: it's in the top 10% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 18,979 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 15.2. This one has done well, scoring higher than 87% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 176,286 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 96% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 91 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 92% of its contemporaries.
