Effectiveness of Psycho-Education Intervention Programme on Coping Strategies Among Jordanian Women Diagnosed with Breast Cancer: A Randomised Controlled Trial

• Published in: Breast cancer targets and therapy Vol. 13; pp. 285 - 297
• Main Authors: Younis, Murad, Norsa'adah, Bachok, Othman, Azizah
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New Zealand Dove Medical Press Limited 01-01-2021; Taylor & Francis Ltd; Dove; Dove Medical Press
• Subjects: adaptive coping; Anxiety; Arabic language; avoidant coping; Breast cancer; Chronic diseases; Comparative analysis; Coping; Developing countries; Education; Ethics; Health care industry; Health care reform; health education; Human subjects; Intervention; LDCs; Likert scale; Malaysia; Medical care; Medical prognosis; Original Research; Patients; psycho-education intervention programme; Psychologists; Public health; Quality management; Quality of life; Questionnaires; randomised controlled trial; Sociodemographics; Womens health; Malaysia; avoidant coping; health education; breast cancer; randomised controlled trial; psycho-education intervention programme; adaptive coping
• ISSN: 1179-1314; 1179-1314
• DOI: 10.2147/BCTT.S299584

This study aimed to assess the effectiveness of a psycho-education intervention programme in improving the coping strategies of Jordanian breast cancer patients.
A double-blinded randomised control trial involving 200 participants between the ages of 20 to 65 years old breast cancer patients was performed. Apart from those who refused participation, patients with chronic diseases and extreme baseline depression scores were also excluded. The control group received standard care twice a week from the social welfare services team facilitator compared to the intervention group that received additional psycho-education intervention programme (PEIP). The coping strategies were measured using the Brief-COPE inventory consisting of 28 items. It was administered on the second and 12th week of trial. The primary end point was compared between pre- and post-intervention. The effect of the intervention between groups, time, and covariates was measured using the generalised linear mixed model (GLMM) analysis.
The mean (SD) of adaptive coping score among the intervention group increased from 5.63 (1.3) at baseline to 6.42 (1.3) at post-intervention. The mean avoidant coping score was 3.87 (1.1) at baseline but reduced to 3.69 (0.8) post-intervention. GLMM showed that women who received the intervention reported significantly higher usage of the adaptive coping strategies after attending the programme (B=0.921, p <0.001).
PEIP significantly improved knowledge of breast cancer patients. Thus, this programme may be considered as a part of the healthcare services in Jordan towards improving the adaptive coping strategies among breast cancer patients, which may point towards the potential for these services to increase adaptive coping strategies among patients in Jordan.
PEIP may be considered as psychosocial intervention in public health and healthcare setting to address rising concerns on quality of care among breast cancer patients.