Abstract
Abstract Introduction: Persistent fatigue affects up to 40% of breast cancer survivors and has multiple contributing factors including pain, sleep disturbance, depression, anxiety, decreased physical activity, weight gain, and treatment-induced menopausal symptoms. A holistic mind-body medicine intervention was developed by the Mercy Medical Center Prevention and Research Center team to address fatigue and its many contributing factors among breast cancer survivors. Overall, the intervention was shown to effectively decrease levels of self-reported fatigue among breast cancer survivors. The purpose of this analysis was to examine whether the effectiveness of the group-based mind-body medicine program differed by race, as little research has assessed the role of race in fatigue improvement among breast cancer survivors. Design: Quasi-experimental design using a before/after evaluation to assess change in fatigue scores. Population: 206 breast cancer survivors (154 Caucasians; 52 African-Americans) with a chief complaint of fatigue. Outcome Measures: Change in severity of fatigue as measured by a 10 cm visual analog scale (0=no fatigue; 10=most fatigue). Fatigue was measured at baseline, end-of-program, two and six months post-program completion. Results: African-Americans reported higher levels of fatigue than Caucasians at baseline and at the three follow-up time points; however, these differences were not statistically significant. African-Americans’ mean score from the visual analog scale showed improvement from 6.3 (SD 1.8) at baseline to 4.4 (SD 2.5) at end-of-program (p<0.001). Results were similar for Caucasians who scored 5.5 (SD 2.2) at baseline compared to 3.6 (2.2) after the intervention (p<0.001). Fatigue improvement was maintained for both groups at two and six month follow up evaluations. Conclusion: A group-based holistic mind-body medicine intervention effectively improved fatigue across both African-American and Caucasian breast cancer survivors. Citation Information: Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2010;19(10 Suppl):A63.
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