title: An intervention to increase quality of life and self-care self-efficacy and decrease symptoms in breast cancer patients.
abstract: This study tested effects of a nurse-administered self-efficacy intervention given on five monthly occasions and designed to enhance patients' self-care self-efficacy. The hypotheses were that at four months and eight months after beginning chemotherapy the efficacy-enhancing experimental group would have significantly higher scores on quality of life and self-care self-efficacy than the control group and significantly less symptom distress. Fifty-six women receiving chemotherapy for breast cancer were randomized to the experimental and control groups. Outcome variables were quality of life, measured by the Functional Assessment of Cancer Treatment-Breast (FACT-B), symptom distress, measured by the Symptom Distress Scale (SDS), and factors of self-care self-efficacy, measured by Strategies Used by Patients to Promote Health (SUPPH). The interaction effects for the FACT-B ranged from small for functional concerns (eta square = .03) to large for social concerns (eta square = .110); effects for the SDS were large (eta square = .140), and for factors on the SUPPH effect sizes ranged from small (eta square = .01) for Enjoying Life and Stress Reduction to medium (eta square = .089) for Coping, and large (eta square = .141) for Making Decisions. Interventions to promote self-efficacy may increase quality of life and decrease symptom distress for women diagnosed with breast cancer.
authors.affiliation: Rutgers, College of Nursing, Newark, NJ 07102, USA.
authors.forename: E L
authors.initials: EL
authors.lastname: Lev
authors.forename: K M
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Daley
authors.forename: N E
authors.initials: NE
authors.lastname: Conner
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Reith
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Fernandez
authors.forename: S V
authors.initials: SV
authors.lastname: Owen
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000451:nursing / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D009515:New Jersey; D010353:Patient Education as Topic; D011788:Quality of Life; D012648:Self Care; D020377:Self Efficacy