Expressive Helping for Chinese-Speaking Cancer Patients and Survivors

Sponsor

New York University (Other)

Overall Status

Completed

CT.gov ID

NCT03945734

Collaborator

(none)

Enrollment

Location

Arm

19.4

Actual Duration (Months)

3.1

Patients Per Site Per Month

Study Details

Study Description

Brief Summary

This study examines the feasibility, cultural-sensitivity, and health effects of the expressive helping intervention by conducting a single-arm trial with Chinese-speaking cancer patients and survivors.

Condition or Disease	Intervention/Treatment	Phase
Neoplasms Cancer	Behavioral: Expressive Helping	N/A

Detailed Description

This study examines whether expressive helping is feasible and culturally-sensitive for Chinese American cancer patients and survivors. For 20 minutes each week over four weeks, participants choose to write or voice-record their thoughts about cancer by following specific prompts designed to help them process their cancer experiences. During the last week of this reflection exercise, participants write or voice-record an anonymous letter to another Chinese cancer patient by sharing their cancer experience and providing advice and encouragement. Health outcomes are assessed at baseline, 1-month, and 3-month follow-ups. A subset of the participants will be invited to share their experiences with the study through qualitative interviews after the last writing/voice-recording session. This research study provides an opportunity for Chinese American cancer patients and survivors to express their feelings without the fear of burdening others, and give them an opportunity to help others by sharing their cancer experiences.

Study Design

Study Type:

Interventional

Actual Enrollment :

60 participants

Allocation:

N/A

Intervention Model:

Single Group Assignment

Masking:

None (Open Label)

Primary Purpose:

Supportive Care

Official Title:

Feasibility of Expressive Helping for Chinese-Speaking Cancer Patients and Survivors

Actual Study Start Date :

May 20, 2019

Actual Primary Completion Date :

Dec 30, 2020

Actual Study Completion Date :

Dec 30, 2020

Arms and Interventions

Arm	Intervention/Treatment
Experimental: Expressive Helping Participants complete four 20-minute writing/voice-recording sessions spaced one week apart. During the first week, the instructions will explain that cancer patients and survivors benefit from learning about other cancer survivors' experiences. They are told that the first three weeks of writing/voice-recording (writing/talking about their stress and coping at Week 1, deepest emotions about cancer at Week 2, self-affirmation and benefit finding at Week 3) are exercises designed to help them think about their cancer experiences and to prepare them to write/record the narrative they would share on Week 4. During Week 4, they are asked to write/record a narrative as if they are speaking to another Chinese person with cancer, adding advice and encouragements, and reminded that their writing/recording would be shared with other Chinese American cancer patients and survivors.	Behavioral: Expressive Helping Expressive helping harnesses the benefits of helping others (e.g., support giving) through writing or voice-recording. Expressive helping integrates two distinct areas of research showing that writing or speaking about ones' negative experiences and engaging in support giving behaviors can improve psychological well-being.

Arm

Intervention/Treatment

Experimental: Expressive Helping

Participants complete four 20-minute writing/voice-recording sessions spaced one week apart. During the first week, the instructions will explain that cancer patients and survivors benefit from learning about other cancer survivors' experiences. They are told that the first three weeks of writing/voice-recording (writing/talking about their stress and coping at Week 1, deepest emotions about cancer at Week 2, self-affirmation and benefit finding at Week 3) are exercises designed to help them think about their cancer experiences and to prepare them to write/record the narrative they would share on Week 4. During Week 4, they are asked to write/record a narrative as if they are speaking to another Chinese person with cancer, adding advice and encouragements, and reminded that their writing/recording would be shared with other Chinese American cancer patients and survivors.

Behavioral: Expressive Helping

Expressive helping harnesses the benefits of helping others (e.g., support giving) through writing or voice-recording. Expressive helping integrates two distinct areas of research showing that writing or speaking about ones' negative experiences and engaging in support giving behaviors can improve psychological well-being.

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcome Measures

Number of participants screened [through study completion, an average of 1 year]
The number of participants screened for eligibility will be counted.
Compliance rate [through study completion, an average of 1 year]
Compliance rate is calculated by dividing the number of writing/voice-recording sessions finished by the number of sessions assigned.
Retention rate [through study completion, an average of 1 year]
Retention rate is calculated by dividing the number of participants who began the study by the number of participants who finished the entire study.
Meaningfulness of the study [This will be assessed approximately four weeks after the baseline]
We will ask participants open-ended questions about whether they felt participating in this study was meaningful to them.

Secondary Outcome Measures

Change in quality of life as assessed by the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy Scale (FACT). [Baseline; 1-month follow-up; 3-month follow-up]
The Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy Scale (FACT) is a 27-item measure of health-related quality of life (Cella & Tulsky,1993). This scale assesses contains four different subscales, including physical well-being (7 items), social well-being (7 items), emotional well-being (6 items), and functional well-being (7 items).
Change in depressive symptoms as assessed by the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D). [Baseline; 1-month follow-up; 3-month follow-up]
The CES-D (Radloff, 1977) is a 20-item measure of depressive symptoms.

Eligibility Criteria

Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study:

18 Years and Older

Sexes Eligible for Study:

All

Accepts Healthy Volunteers:

Inclusion Criteria:

Diagnosis of cancer (any type)
Of Chinese descent
Over the age of 18
Can speaking and read Mandarin Chinese

Exclusion Criteria:

Completed primary cancer treatment more than five years ago

Contacts and Locations

Locations

	Site	City	State	Country	Postal Code
1	New York University	New York	New York	United States	10003

Sponsors and Collaborators

New York University

Investigators

None specified.

Study Documents (Full-Text)

None provided.

More Information

Publications

None provided.

Responsible Party:

William Tsai, Assistant Professor, New York University

ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier:

NCT03945734

Other Study ID Numbers:

19-0612

First Posted:

May 10, 2019

Last Update Posted:

Mar 3, 2021

Last Verified:

Mar 1, 2021

Individual Participant Data (IPD) Sharing Statement:

Plan to Share IPD:

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated Drug Product:

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated Device Product:

Study Results

No Results Posted as of Mar 3, 2021