Effect of Educative-Supportive Program on Quality of Life in Breast Cancer Survivors

Breast cancer survivors experience long-term problems related to their disease and treatment, and this can decrease their quality of life. This quasi-experimental research aimed to study the effect of an Educative-Supportive Program on quality of life among 61 breast cancer survivors diagnosed for at least 5 years, at Maharaj Nakorn Chiang Mai hospital, Thailand. Eligible participants were obtained by using purposive sampling and matching of age, education, and year of survival was conducted before group assignment. Participants were assigned into the control and the experimental group, 31 in the control and 30 in the experimental. Implementation of the Educative-Supportive Program was separated into 4-hour sessions, conducted 4 times continuously with 2 weeks interval. Participants' self-report instruments included, Demographic Data Form, Quality of Life: Breast Cancer Version Questionnaire and Self-management Questionnaire. Data were collected 3 times: before the program began (time 1), after the program (time 2) and 3 months after the program ended (time 3). The results showed that mean score of quality of life in the experimental group for all 3 times were 6.43 (SD=1.21), 6.30 (SD=1.18) and 5.86 (SD=1.39), respectively while those in control group were 5.82 (SD=1.22), 5.51 (SD=1.09) and 5.41 (SD=1.14), respectively. By using repeated measure ANOVA, the results indicated no interaction between treatment effect and time effect (F Wilk's Lamba = .763, p =. 471). Moreover, a significance differences in quality of life mean score between groups (F = 5.313, p=.025) and within groups (F = 6.682, p=.002) were shown. Using Bonferroni criterions, the results revealed a significance difference of quality of life score between time 1 and time 3 in the experimental group (mean difference = .491, p=.001). Although the results were not as expected, the evidence of intermediate outcome-self care activities in the experimental group was shown. Further development of Educative-Supportive Programs among Thai breast cancer survivors is still needed, as it is an essential strategy to increase quality of life.