Objective: To determine whether a telephone counseling program can improve psychosocial outcomes among breast cancer patients post-treatment.
Methods: A randomized trial was conducted involving 21 hospitals and medical centers, with assessments (self-administered questionnaires) at baseline, 12 and 18 months post-enrollment. Eligibility criteria included early stage diagnosis, enrollment during last treatment visit, and the ability to receive the intervention in English. Endpoints included distress (Impact of Event Scale), depression (Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale), and two study-specific measures: sexual dysfunction and personal growth. The control group (n=152) received a resource directory for breast cancer; the intervention group (n=152) also received a one-year, 16 session telephone counseling program augmented with additional print materials.
Results: Significant intervention effects were found for sexual dysfunction at 12 (p=0.03) and 18 months (p=0.04) and personal growth (12 months: p=0.005; 18 months: p=0.03). No differences by group were found in mean scores for distress and depression, with both groups showing significant improvement at 12 and 18 months (all p values for within-group change from baseline were
Conclusions: Telephone counseling may provide a viable method for extending psychosocial services to cancer survivors nationwide.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/pon.1653 | DOI Listing |
F1000Res
January 2025
Department of Community Medicine, Kasturba Medical College, Mangalore, Manipal Academy of Higher Education,, Karnataka, Manipal, 576104, India.
Background: Better affordability of data plans and an increase in "budget" smartphones have resulted in an exponential rise in internet and smartphone users. The ease of access to sexually explicit material (SEM) coupled with adolescents' impulsivity makes them prone to excessive SEM exposure and may affect the development of sexuality via the perceived realism of such content. This study was done to study the influence between problematic smartphone usage (PSU) and sexuality development among late adolescent boys.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSci Rep
January 2025
School of Nursing, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong SAR, China.
Drinking is a common unhealthy behaviour among youth smokers aged 25 or below. However, the effects of drinking on smoking cessation outcomes are not well understood. This study aimed to explore the impact of drinking on smoking cessation outcomes among Hong Kong Chinese youth smokers who received smoking cessation counselling.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLancet Healthy Longev
January 2025
Department of Social Sciences and Policy Studies, The Education University of Hong Kong, Tai Po, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China.
Background: Previous randomised controlled trials have largely relied on self-reported volunteer work to assess the effects of volunteering and have rarely provided structured volunteering activities during the intervention period. The present study aimed to investigate the effects of social volunteering work over 12 months on loneliness among older adults during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Methods: A dual randomised controlled trial was done in Hong Kong to investigate the long-term effects of telephone-delivered psychosocial interventions by older Chinese volunteers who were screened as lonely, for older adult recipients who had low income, lived alone, felt lonely, and were digitally excluded.
PLoS One
January 2025
Centre for Intervention Science and Maternal Child Health (CISMAC), Centre for International Health, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway.
Background: Timely initiation of and exclusive breastfeeding have been recommended as key interventions to enable countries to attain the sustainable development target of reducing neonatal mortality to no more than 12 deaths per 1000 live births and to reduce mortality of children under 5 years to no more than 25 deaths per 1000 live births.
Methods: We conducted a cluster randomized controlled trial with the main objective to assess the effect of an integrated package consisting of: peer counseling, mobile phone messages, and mama kits on promoting health facility births between January 2018 and February 2019, in Lira district, Northern Uganda. In this article, we assessed the effect of the intervention on our two secondary objectives: timely initiation of and exclusivity of breastfeeding.
Rev Med Chil
September 2024
University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School, Worcester, MA, Estados Unidos.
Unlabelled: People with type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM2) experience difficulties in self-management. One of the variables involved is the low level of health literacy (HL) which corresponds to the degree to which people access, understand, evaluate and use information to engage with health demands in different contexts, in order to promote and maintain good health.
Hypothesis: People diagnosed with diabetes mellitus who participate in an intervention to increase their level of health literacy improve their metabolic compensation measured in HBA1c.
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