Psych Central News
Telephone Counseling Can Aid Recovery After Breast Cancer
Investigators determined the telephonic counseling helps women become more physically active, improving quality of life and lessening the side effects of cancer treatment.
Investigators discovered that women who received exercise advice from their surgeon or oncologist, followed by three months of telephone support, reported 30 more minutes of physical activity per week than patients who received exercise advice and followup calls about their general health.
Researchers say the findings, published in the current issue of Health Psychology, reinforce the benefits of exercise in cancer recovery, including improved physical functioning.
Physical activity has also been shown to reduce cancer-related fatigue and the risk for other chronic diseases, such as cardiovascular disease, obesity and osteoporosis.
“Breast cancer patients are followed by their health care providers for a long time after treatment, which presents many opportunities for providers to share advice about physical activity and other healthy lifestyle changes,” said lead author Bernardine M. Pinto, Ph.D.
She points out there are more than 11 million cancer survivors in the U.S.
“As survival rates improve, cancer is often viewed less as a death sentence and more as a chronic disease,” said Pinto.
“Cancer patients are interested in what they can do to improve their well-being, and getting advice from the care providers they see regularly can certainly help in adopting healthy lifestyles, including becoming physically active.”
Telephone-based interventions to promote exercise in the general population have been largely successful, offering such unique advantages such as convenience and access.
Researchers believe that having health care providers play a role in after-care is a key factor for the study’s success.
Previous interventions promoting exercise among cancer survivors did not involve health care providers and most studies to date have not assessed long-term physical activity outcomes.
Pinto and colleagues conducted a randomized trial involving 192 breast cancer patients.
Oncologists and surgeons were asked to provide brief physical activity advice to patients who had completed treatment for Stage 0-IV breast cancer, including a recommendation of 30 minutes of moderate intensity exercise most days of the week and scheduling followup with research staff.
The 106 women who were randomized to the telephone counseling group received eight telephone calls over 12 weeks from counselors who monitored and supported their physical activity efforts.
The remaining 86 participants assigned to the control group received the same number and frequency of telephone calls that focused on their general health. All participants were assessed at baseline and again at three, six and 12 months.
Pinto and her team say patients in the telephone counseling group had considerably higher levels of physical activity and were almost twice as likely to meet national recommendations of 150 minutes per week of exercise three and six months later.
Telephone counseling also significantly improved patients’ motivational readiness throughout the 12-month study period, suggesting the potential for exercise promotion in cancer followup care.
Pinto notes this is the first trial that has included a role for the cancer provider and integrated advice about exercise into regular medical appointments.
“Our study clearly shows it’s possible for motivated health care providers to provide brief advice to their patients during a followup visit,” she said.
“While we can’t be sure physician advice alone would suffice, our results do suggest that health care provider advice will require supplementation, whether it’s telephone counseling or some other mode of delivery, to support the adoption and maintenance of physical activity in cancer patients.”
Source: Lifespan
Doctor using the telephone photo by shutterstock.
Single Dads & Single Moms Suffer at Work: Non-Traditional Roles May Incite Workplace Bias
Investigators discovered that middle-class men who take on non-traditional caregiving roles are treated worse at work than men who stick closer to traditional gender norms in the family.
Furthermore, women without children and mothers with non-traditional caregiving arrangements are treated worst of all.
“Their hours are no different than other employees’, but their co-workers appear to be picking up on their non-traditional caregiving roles and are treating them disrespectfully,” said social psychologist Jennifer Berdahl, Ph.D., from the University of Toronto.
Berdahl co-authored the study with Sue Moon, Ph.D., from Long Island University.
Researchers performed two separate field studies, each using mail-in surveys. The first was targeted at unionized workers in female-dominated occupations and the other was targeted at public service workers in a male-dominated workforce.
Amazingly, the investigators discovered negative consequences when traditional gender roles associated with having a family were altered. In the same spirit, the least harassed employees were fathers and mothers who followed more traditional gender norms. For instance, men who did less caregiving and domestic tasks at home and women who did more were more likely to be accepted.
The results suggest that how well a worker performs their gender role in the home has more bearing on how they are treated at work than how well that worker performs their job.
As a result, men and women are likely to feel pressure at work to conform to traditional roles at home.
“They may choose not to have children if these traditional roles are not feasible for them, or get in the way of family or career goals,” according to Berdahl.
Berdahl points out that workplace treatment is different from pay and promotions.
“Both male and female employees suffer lower pay and fewer promotions after taking time off work to care for family, to extents that cannot be explained by possible skill loss, hours, performance, or ambition.”
“What we really need is a more flexible workplace and policies that protect employees who choose to use that flexibility or not, regardless of their gender,” Berdahl said.
The study is to be published in the Journal of Social Issues.
Source: University of Toronto
Business woman handling housework photo by shutterstock.
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