A self‐help intervention for reducing time to diagnosis in Indonesian women with breast cancer symptoms

Abstract

Objective: We investigated the effectiveness of a self-help intervention named PER-ANTARA, which aims to improve adherence to diagnostic procedures among women with breast cancer (BC) symptoms to reduce the time to a definitive diagnosis.Methods: With a cluster randomized crossover design across four hospitals, PER-ANTARA and treatment as usual (TAU) or TAU only was provided at successive periods in a randomly determined order. The main outcome was the time between the first medical consultation and the definitive diagnosis. Secondary outcomes were BC knowledge, measured by the Breast Cancer Knowledge Test (BCKT); symptoms of anxiety and depression, measured by the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS); quality of life, measured by the World Health Organization Quality of Life-BREF (WHOQOL-BREF); and health status, measured by the EQ-5D-5L. A linear mixed model analysis was conducted to analyse the outcomes. Results: We recruited 132 women with BC symptoms from four hospitals; 67 participants were in the intervention group, and 65 participants were in the control group. PERANTARA reduced the time to definitive diagnosis by 13.3 days (M [SD]: 25.90 [23.20] in the intervention group vs 39.29 [35.10] in the control group; mean difference = −13.26, 95% CI = −24.51 to −2.00, P = .02). No significant difference was found between the groups in BC knowledge, symptoms of anxiety, depression, quality of life, or health status. Conclusions: PERANTARA reduced the time to definitive diagnosis among Indonesian women with BC symptoms. Psychoeducation may be an important addition to regular BC care to prevent undue delays in diagnostic procedures. K E Y W O R D S adherence, breast, cancer, cluster randomized controlled trial, diagnosis, health education,

Psychoeducation for breast cancer: A systematic review and meta-analysis

“…This may lead women with BC symptoms to be inclined to postpone or delay the timely diagnosis. Adherence to diagnostic and treatment procedures is an important public health problem, especially in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), like Indonesia [ 13 , 14 ]. Non-adherence may negatively affect recovery and survivorship, including the risk of recurrence and mortality [ 15 , 16 ].…”

Predisposing and Reinforcing Factors in Patients with Breast Cancer in Samarinda, East Kalimantan

“…It means that out of 237 million people, there were around 237,000 breast cancer sufferers each year. Therefore, the information also showed that cancer prevalence increases with age (Setyowibowo et al, 2020).…”

“…Generally, breast cancer incidence reached a case, and the red incidence rate reached 58,265 cases and around 16.7% of the total cancer cases as a whole (Setyowibowo et al, 2020). It was estimated that there were 100 new cases per 100,000 population each year.…”

Make Self-help Psychoeducational Programs for Breast Cancer Patients COVID-19 Proof

“…It consists of printed material with information about symptoms and actions to be taken and of audio-visual material with testimonials of two BC survivors. Our recent publication [9], based on data from the pre-COVID-19 period, showed that our program had a significant effect in shortening the time these women took to visit the hospital for diagnosis and treatment. The moment, however, we were planning to implement our program in the local 1 Faculty of Psychology, Universitas Padjadjaran, Jatinangor, Indonesia.…”