Department of Psychology, University of Houston, Houston, TX, USA.
Texas Institute for Measurement, Evaluation and Statistics, University of Houston, Houston, TX, USA.
Ann Behav Med. 2018 Oct 22;52(11):952-962. doi: 10.1093/abm/kax067.
Expressive writing interventions are shown to confer health benefits for Caucasian cancer survivors. However, few studies reported improved quality of life or studied ethnic minorities.
The study evaluated whether a culturally sensitive expressive writing intervention improved quality of life.
Chinese-speaking breast cancer survivors (n = 136) in the USA were randomly assigned to one of three conditions to write three 30-min weekly essays: a cancer-fact condition to write about facts relevant to the cancer experience for three weeks; a self-regulation condition to write about deepest feelings at week 1, stress and coping at week 2, and finding benefits at week 3; or an enhanced self-regulation condition to write about stress and coping at week 1, deepest feelings at week 2, and finding benefits at week 3. Quality of life was assessed by Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy at baseline, 1-, 3-, and 6-month follow-ups.
Growth curve models showed that quality of life was increased in the sample from baseline to the 6-month follow-up. The enhanced self-regulation condition had a large and statistically significant effect (d = 0.90, 95% CI [0.02, 1.687]), and the self-regulation condition had a small effect (d = 0.22, 95% CI [-0.79, 1.07]) on quality of life improvement compared with the cancer-fact group.
Expressive writing is shown to be an effective intervention to improve quality of life for Chinese-American cancer survivors. Future efforts are warranted to disseminate and implement this low-dose and brief intervention in community and clinical settings.
NCT02946619.
表达性写作干预对白人癌症幸存者的健康有益。然而，很少有研究报告生活质量得到改善或研究少数民族。
本研究评估了一种文化敏感的表达性写作干预是否能提高生活质量。
美国的 136 名中文乳腺癌幸存者被随机分配到三个条件中的一个，每周写三篇 30 分钟的文章：一个癌症事实条件，写三周与癌症经历相关的事实；一个自我调节条件，在第 1 周写最深的感受，在第 2 周写压力和应对，在第 3 周写发现益处；或一个增强的自我调节条件，在第 1 周写压力和应对，在第 2 周写最深的感受，在第 3 周写发现益处。在基线、1 个月、3 个月和 6 个月的随访中，采用癌症治疗功能评估量表评估生活质量。
增长曲线模型显示，生活质量从基线到 6 个月的随访中有所提高。增强的自我调节条件有较大且具有统计学意义的效果（d=0.90，95%CI[0.02，1.687]），而自我调节条件的效果较小（d=0.22，95%CI[-0.79，1.07]）与癌症事实组相比，生活质量的改善。
表达性写作被证明是一种有效的干预措施，可以提高美籍华裔癌症幸存者的生活质量。未来需要努力在社区和临床环境中传播和实施这种低剂量、简短的干预措施。
NCT02946619。
