WomenStories for Women with Breast Cancer May Attenuate Emotional Distress
Background: Many women with breast cancer suffer substantial emotional distress during and after treatment which, in turn. impacts treatment outcomes and quality of life. WomenStories (WS) is a series of videos presenting narratives captured from a multicultural panel of breast cancer survivors, covering a wide range of topics relevant to coping with emotions throughout the trajectory of experience.
Method: We assessed short-term effects (pre-to-post measured) of viewing a WS module on women who were within 2-24 months of a Stage I-III breast cancer diagnosis and compared to a convenience sample control group. Women were recruited from community settings and/or participants in a couples’ longitudinal study, and asked to complete measures on anxiety, depression (Profile of Mood States subscales), emotional expression and emotional processing (subscales of Emotion Approach Coping) before, and 24-48 hours after, viewing a WS module on emotional distress. Identification and Engagement with the stories were collected after viewing the WS module.
A randomly selected matched control group (age, stage, time since diagnosis, and ethnicity) was drawn from the longitudinal study. POMS measures taken from two visits, 3 months apart, were used to assess changes for those not exposed to the WS intervention. Baseline and final scores were tested for changes within each group using t-tests (95% confidence intervals).
Results: For the 28 participants exposed to WS, the mean time since diagnosis was 11 months, mean age, 53.89. Seven of the 28 were Latina women (with Dx, age and ethnicity profiles for 28 matched controls). WS intervention participants significantly decreased in anxiety and depression subscales measures (0-4)of POMS pre-to post, and slightly improved (in predicted direction, but not significantly) in Emotional Processing (EmProc) and Emotional Expression (EmExp). Matched controls did not improve on POMS. (Emotion measures not available from this group).
Table 1 Responses to WomenStories Matched Control
|
Pre Mean |
Post Mean |
P value |
Pre Mean |
Post mean |
P value |
Anxiety (POMS) |
1.05 |
.48 |
.001** |
.79 |
.67 |
.239 |
Depression (POMS) |
.68 |
.35 |
.029** |
.99 |
.43 |
.327 |
EmProc (EAC) |
3.15 |
3.26 |
.355 |
n/a |
n/a |
- |
EmExp (EAC) |
3.05 |
3.35 |
.067 |
n/a |
n/a |
- |
Regression analyses indicated that reduced anxiety and depression ratings were associated with higher WS scores on Identification (R2=.214 , p = .063) and Engagement (R2=.226 , p = .053) with the videos.
Conclusion: Although not a significant finding, the trend provides support for the potential of these factors to be explanatory in the model in our proposed study of WS. More generally, this pilot study supports the premise that a narrative-based presentation of women sharing their coping stories shows promise for making a difference in emotional well-being. Even women later in their trajectory of treatment, many of them past treatment and typically more stable in mood state, responded to WS with improvements in mood, and possibly emotional expression.