BACKGROUNDResearch suggests that stress‐reduction programs tailored to the cancer setting help patients cope with the effects of treatment and improve their quality of life. Yoga, an ancient Eastern science, incorporates stress‐reduction techniques that include regulated breathing, visual imagery, and meditation as well as various postures. The authors examined the effects of the Tibetan yoga (TY) practices of Tsa lung and Trul khor, which incorporate controlled breathing and visualization, mindfulness techniques, and low‐impact postures in patients with lymphoma.METHODSThirty‐nine patients with lymphoma who were undergoing treatment or who had concluded treatment within the past 12 months were assigned to a TY group or to a wait‐list control group. Patients in the TY group participated in 7 weekly yoga sessions, and patients in the wait‐list control group were free to participate in the TY program after the 3‐month follow‐up assessment.RESULTSEighty nine percent of TY participants completed at least 2–3 three yoga sessions, and 58% completed at least 5 sessions. Patients in the TY group reported significantly lower sleep disturbance scores during follow‐up compared with patients in the wait‐list control group (5.8 vs. 8.1; P < 0.004). This included better subjective sleep quality (P < 0.02), faster sleep latency (P < 0.01), longer sleep duration (P < 0.03), and less use of sleep medications (P < 0.02). There were no significant differences between groups in terms of intrusion or avoidance, state anxiety, depression, or fatigue.CONCLUSIONSThe participation rates suggested that a TY program is feasible for patients with cancer and that such a program significantly improves sleep‐related outcomes. However, there were no significant differences between groups for the other outcomes. Cancer 2004. © 2004 American Cancer Society.

BACKGROUNDThe objective of this survey was to identify factors associated with good sexual outcomes in a large group of survivors of localized prostate carcinoma.METHODSA postal survey was sent to 2636 men in the Cleveland Clinic Foundation's Prostate Cancer Registry who either were treated with definitive radiotherapy or underwent prostatectomy for localized prostate carcinoma. The survey asked about demographic items, past and current sexual functioning, partner's sexual function and health, and a number of factors hypothesized to affect sexual satisfaction. Standardized questionnaires included the Sexual Self‐Schema Scale‐Male Version, the International Index of Erectile Function (IIEF), urinary and bowel symptom scales from the Los Angeles Prostate Cancer Index, and the Short Form Health Survey (SF‐36).RESULTSThe return rate was 49%, yielding a sample of 1236 men at an average of 4.3 years post‐treatment. Comparing responders with nonresponders suggested that the sample may have been somewhat biased toward men who were more interested in maintaining sexual function. At the time they were diagnosed with prostate carcinoma, 36% of men had erectile dysfunction (ED). Within the past 6 months, however, 85% of men reported having ED. Only 13% of men were having reliable, firm erections spontaneously, and another 8% of men were having erections with the aid of a medical treatment. Men were as distressed about loss of desire and trouble having satisfying orgasms as they were about ED. Of the 84% of men who reported having a current sexual partner, 66% indicated that she had a sexual problem. Younger age was associated strongly with better sexual outcome (global IIEF score). With demographic factors taken into account, better sexual outcome was related significantly to medical factors, including not having neoadjuvant or current antiandrogen therapy, undergoing bilateral nerve‐sparing prostatectomy or brachytherapy, and having better mental and physical health composite scores on the SF‐36. Sexual factors that were associated with a better outcome included having normal erections before treatment for prostate carcinoma, choosing a treatment based on the hope that it would preserve sexual function, having more sexual partners in the past year, and having a sexually functional partner.CONCLUSIONSThe great majority of men who survive prostate carcinoma do not achieve a return to functional sexual activity in the years after treatment. The priorities a man places on sexuality and on having a sexually functional partner are important factors in sexual satisfaction at follow‐up, over and above the influence of age and medical factors. Cancer 2002;95:1773–85. © 2002 American Cancer Society.DOI 10.1002/cncr.10848

The prevalence of smoking among college students is surprisingly high and represents a significant public health issue. However, there are few longitudinal studies of smoking in this population. This study examined the prevalence and predictors of transitions in smoking behavior among a cohort of 548 college students. Over the course of 4 years, 87% of daily smokers and almost 50% of occasional smokers continued to smoke. Among nonsmokers, 11.5% began smoking occasionally and none became daily smokers. In general, predictors of smoking behavior change were significant only among baseline occasional smokers and included gender, smoking outcome expectancies, and affect regulation expectations. Peer and parental smoking, demographics, affect, stress, and alcohol use were generally not predictive of change. Tobacco control interventions targeted at college students are clearly warranted.

This study evaluated the relationship between precessation depressed mood and smoking abstinence and assessed the mediation of this effect by postcessation self-efficacy, urges to smoke, nicotine withdrawal, and coping behavior. The sample included 121 smokers previously treated in a randomized controlled trial involving behavior therapy and the nicotine patch. The results showed that precessation depressed mood was inversely related to 6-month abstinence. This effect remained significant after controlling for treatment, possible depression history, baseline smoking rates, and several other demographic factors. Postcessation self-efficacy, at the 2-, 4-, and 8-week postquit assessments, was the strongest mediator of the effects of precessation depressed mood on abstinence, accounting for 32%, 38%, and 48% of the effect of mood on abstinence, respectively.

Questions of whether hypothesized structure models are appropriate representations of the pattern of association among a group of variables can be addressed using a wide variety of statistical procedures. These procedures include covariance structure analysis techniques and correlation structure analysis techniques, in which covariance structure procedures are based on distribution theory for covariances, and correlation structure procedures are based on distribution theory for correlations. The present article provides an overview of standard and modified normal theory and asymptotically distribution-free covariance and correlation structure analysis techniques and also details Monte Carlo simulation results on the Type I and Type II error control as a function of structure model type, number of variables in the model, sample size, and distributional nonnormality. The present Monte Carlo simulation demonstrates clearly that the robustness and nonrobustness of structure analysis techniques vary as a function of the structure of the model and the data conditions. Implications of these results for users of structure analysis techniques are considered in the context of current software availability.