Breast cancer (BC) is the most common cancer among women worldwide. American women have a 1 in 8 lifetime probability of developing BC. Nevertheless, death rates from BC have steadily decreased since 1990 and women are surviving longer with the disease. Thus, health care professionals face a new set of challenges beyond decreasing mortality: helping BC patients, survivors, and their family members cope with the cancer experience. The effects of BC diagnosis and treatment occur in an interpersonal context. Recent research has documented that BC diagnosis and treatment affect the patient's spouse/partner as well as the couple's relationship functioning. However, most of this research has involved global, cross-sectional assessments that can obfuscate our understanding of interpersonal processes. In addition, this research has usually relied on retrospective reports by both patients and their spouses/partners. There are several problems with retrospective reports, including systematic recall biases associated with concurrent mood and/or psychological adjustment. To address these problems, and to capture behavior and mood """"""""in the moment,"""""""" health researchers are beginning to use diary designs to assess the daily functioning of medical patients. None of this research has focused on BC patients and their spouses/ partners in the same study. One likely reason for this is the unknown feasibility of applying a diary methodology to couples coping with cancer. The primary purpose of this project is to evaluate the feasibility of an electronic daily diary methodology for research with BC patients and their spouses/partners. Within a few weeks after surgery, BC patients and their spouses/partners will complete a battery of questionnaires. Then, for 10 consecutive nights, BC patients and their spouses/ partners will complete surveys via personal digital assistants (PDAs) that assess their daily experiences, mood, and social support processes. Feasibility of this electronic diary methodology will be evaluated in terms of the percentage of couples who agree to participate in the study and the percentage of participating couples who complete the PDA-based survey each night. The electronic diary methodology will also be used to test two dyadic hypotheses for couples coping with BC. The first focuses on the effect of perceived and received support on the daily adjustment of BC patients and their spouses/partners. The second focuses on day-to-day transmission of emotion between BC patients and their spouses/partners.

Public Health Relevance

To date, research on the psychosocial functioning of breast cancer patients has relied on retrospective measures that have been administered once or on just a few occasions. The overarching purpose of this project is a) to test the implementation of an electronic dyadic daily diary methodology and b) to examine psychosocial and interpersonal processes in the daily lives of couples in which one partner is a woman recently diagnosed with breast cancer soon after surgery.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Cancer Institute (NCI)
Type
Small Research Grants (R03)
Project #
1R03CA136080-01A1
Application #
7678338
Study Section
Special Emphasis Panel (ZCA1-SRLB-H (J1))
Program Officer
Jeffery, Diana D
Project Start
2009-06-04
Project End
2011-05-31
Budget Start
2009-06-04
Budget End
2010-05-31
Support Year
1
Fiscal Year
2009
Total Cost
$78,521
Indirect Cost
Name
University of Delaware
Department
Psychology
Type
Schools of Arts and Sciences
DUNS #
059007500
City
Newark
State
DE
Country
United States
Zip Code
19716
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Otto, Amy K; Szczesny, Elana C; Soriano, Emily C et al. (2016) Effects of a randomized gratitude intervention on death-related fear of recurrence in breast cancer survivors. Health Psychol 35:1320-1328
Otto, Amy K; Laurenceau, Jean-Philippe; Siegel, Scott D et al. (2015) Capitalizing on everyday positive events uniquely predicts daily intimacy and well-being in couples coping with breast cancer. J Fam Psychol 29:69-79
Belcher, Amber J; Laurenceau, Jean-Philippe; Graber, Elana C et al. (2011) Daily support in couples coping with early stage breast cancer: maintaining intimacy during adversity. Health Psychol 30:665-73