Effects of a couple-based self-efficacy intervention on health outcomes among colorectal cancer patients and spousal caregivers: A randomized controlled trial.

Abstract

Purpose: This study aimed to assess the feasibility and acceptability of a couple-based self-efficacy (SE) intervention, and to examine the effects of the intervention on health outcomes for CRC couples.

Methods: An assessor-blinded, two-armed, randomized controlled design was used. The study randomly assigned 144 patients hospitalized for colorectal cancer to receive either the SE intervention or the usual care. SE was the primary outcome. The secondary outcomes included quality of life and mental health (positive emotions and negative emotions). Repeated measures analysis of variance was used to examine the data.

Results: The recruitment and retention rates were 80% and 87.5%, respectively. First, we found that patients scored significantly higher on anxiety (p = 0.001), depression (p = 0.001) and benefit findings (p = 0.009) than did spousal caregivers, whereas spousal caregivers scored significantly higher than patients on the quality of life (p < 0.001 for both physical scores and mental scores) in the SE group. Second, immediately after the intervention, the SE group showed statistically significant improvements were found in SE (p < 0.001 for both couples), quality of life (mental scores) (p = 0.002 for spousal caregivers), negative emotion (anxiety, p < 0.05 for both couples; depression, p = 0.03 for patients), and positive emotion (benefit findings) (p < 0.001 for both couple) when compared to the control group.

Conclusion: A couple-based SE intervention significantly improved SE, quality of life (mental scores), and psychological well-being, suggesting a short-term intervention effect.