A Research Study for Latina Women Undergoing Breast Cancer Treatment

Quality of Life Clinical Trial

Official title: An e-Health Intervention to Improve Symptom Burden and Health-Related Quality of Life Among Hispanic Women Completing Active Treatment for Breast Cancer

Status Completed

Clinical Trial Summary

The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of a developed psychosocial eHealth intervention on the proposed primary outcomes, health-related quality of life and symptom burden, among Hispanic breast cancer patients.

The intervention components include breast cancer knowledge, stress awareness and management, social support, and enhanced communication and intimacy skills. The intervention will be delivered via a Smartphone application over a 12-week period.

Participants are randomized into either an intervention application (described below) or standard treatment. Aside from using the Smartphone application for the recommended 12 weeks, participation in this study includes three assessments: baseline (at the beginning of the research study), 6-week follow-up, and 12-week follow-up.

Clinical Trial Description

Among Hispanics, the largest and fastest growing ethnic minority group in the U.S., cancer is the leading cause of death whereas cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death for African Americans and non-Hispanic Whites (NHWs). Hispanics also experience substantially lower rates of 5-year cancer-specific survival relative to non-Hispanic Whites (NHWs). Hispanic cancer patients in the U.S. also report significantly worse cancer-related symptom burden and health-related quality of life (HRQOL) than NHWs, even after adjusting for socioeconomic factors.

Despite this, very few randomized, intervention studies have specifically targeted cancer-related symptom burden and HRQOL outcomes among Hispanic women, especially during active treatment, which is a critical period to intervene to provide skills and tools to assist with cancer care. Innovative approaches to providing interventions such as Smartphone technology are especially important for this patient population. Ubiquitous Smartphone use among ethnic minorities in the US provide a unique opportunity to implement a pragmatic technology- and evidence-based psychosocial intervention that overcomes some access to care barriers as well as time and logistical constraints. Furthermore, given that Hispanics own Smartphones and seek health information online from a mobile device at similar or higher rates than other groups in the U.S., Smartphone interventions offer an opportunity to overcome obstacles to accessing resources and services that can be culturally informed and provide skills to improve symptom burden and HRQOL.

This study aims to create and evaluate a culturally informed eHealth psychoeducational and psychosocial intervention for English or Spanish-speaking Hispanic women undergoing treatment for breast cancer. This intervention is grounded in evidence-based paradigms to improve the proposed Primary Outcomes: Cancer-Related Symptom Burden and HRQOL and the proposed Secondary Outcomes: usability and markers the intervention use. This study is designed to develop and test a Smartphone-based intervention that can be disseminated to cancer patients at a relatively low cost. This study designed as a 12-week randomized trial intended to evaluate the eHealth intervention when compared to a control condition. It is hypothesized that the eHealth intervention will significantly improve cancer-related symptom burden and HRQOL compared to the control condition. ;

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Cancer-related Problem/Condition
• Quality of Life
• Stress, Emotional

• NCT number: NCT04064151
• Study type: Interventional
• Source: Northwestern University
• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Start date: September 10, 2019
• Completion date: July 1, 2022