Common dyadic coping and its congruence in couples facing breast cancer: The impact on couples' psychological distress.

OBJECTIVE: Psychological distress is prevalent in couples facing breast cancer. Couples often deal with breast cancer as a unit instead of as individuals. Couple's dyadic coping is important for their adjustment to breast cancer; however, little is known about how couple's coping congruence influences their distress. This study examined how common dyadic coping (CDC) and coping congruence impact psychological distress in couples facing breast cancer. METHODS: Baseline data were analyzed from 343 women with recently diagnosed early-stage breast cancer and their partners who participated in a randomized clinical trial. Psychological distress was indicated by depressed mood and state anxiety. Common dyadic coping was measured by a self-report scale. Coping congruence was assessed by the absolute difference between a woman's and her partner's CDC scores. RESULTS: Higher CDC scores were associated with lower psychological distress in both women and partners. In the CDC subscales, women who suffered less scored higher on open communication, sharing a positive outlook, and lower on avoidance coping. Partners who suffered less scored higher on open communication, sharing a positive outlook, spending time talking, and lower on avoidance coping. Greater congruence in CDC was associated with lower psychological distress in women and their partners. Congruence in sharing a positive outlook benefited both members of the dyad; congruence in avoidance coping significantly benefited patients; congruence in open communication significantly benefited partners. CONCLUSIONS: CDC and its congruence in specific areas have potential benefit to couple's psychological distress when facing breast cancer. Health care providers could consider enhancing couple's CDC and coping congruence to improve their adjustment.

Development of a common dyadic coping scale in couples facing breast cancer: the importance of open communication.

OBJECTIVE: Couples' joint coping is important in managing the impact of breast cancer. However, measures assessing couples' communication as a way of coping are insufficient. This study aimed to generate a self-report valid and reliable measure of couples' coping with a particular focus on communication. METHOD: We used baseline data of 343 couple dyads who participated in a randomized clinical trial targeting marital communication. Women were diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer in the past eight months; couples were married or in an intimate relationship for at least six months, could read and write English, and lived within 100 miles of the study center. An expert panel selected items with conceptual fit from the Mutuality and Interpersonal Sensitivity Scale (MIS) that was originally designed to evaluate marital communication about breast cancer. RESULTS: Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses supported a 12-item measurement model with four factors: Keeping the communication open with each other about breast cancer (4 items), Sharing a positive outlook on breast cancer (2 items), Avoiding discussion of negative thoughts and feelings about breast cancer (3 items), and Spending sufficient time together talking about breast cancer (3 items). Reliability ranged from 0.76 to 0.87 for women and 0.70 to 0.83 for spouses. CONCLUSION: This new measure has potential application in clinical practice and future research to assess couple's joint coping efforts especially through communication.

Advanced parental cancer and adolescents: Parenting issues and challenges.

BACKGROUND: An estimated 609,820 child-rearing adults in 2023 died from advanced cancer, affecting 153,675 dependent children. Although children are known to suffer significant distress when a parent is diagnosed with cancer, few studies have described parents' views of their adolescent's behavioral response to their advanced cancer or what the parent did to interpret or manage that response. OBJECTIVES: To describe patient-reported concerns about their adolescent and how they responded to their adolescent's behavior. METHODS: Single occasion interviews were administered to 6 adolescent-rearing parents with Stage IV cancer. Interviews were analyzed using inductive content analysis by trained coders. Trustworthiness of results was protected through peer debriefing, coding to consensus, and maintaining an audit trail. RESULTS: The core construct that explained study data was Being There without Taking Over, comprised of 4 domains: Struggling to Read My Child, Attempting to Talk with My Child about My Cancer, Trying to Maintain Optimism, and Understanding My Child. CONCLUSIONS: Parents were deeply concerned about the impact of their advanced cancer on their adolescent but were unable to distinguish between cancer-related distress and adolescent angst. They feared initiating cancer-related discussions and struggled with their own feelings of guilt and parental inadequacy but did not turn to professionals for help. SIGNIFICANCE OF RESULTS: Adolescent-rearing patients with advanced disease need to be triaged into services that offer a framework from which parents can interpret their child's behavior and learn ways to have adolescent-appropriate conversations about the cancer. Such services should also help parents gain skills to manage feelings of parental inadequacy and guilt. In the absence of services, parents struggle and do not know how to interpret and respond to their adolescent's cancer-related behavior.

Development and Psychometric Evaluation of the Children's Illness-Related Concerns Scale.

BACKGROUND: Despite the effect of maternal breast cancer on many children, there is no valid or reliable quantitative measure of the concern that children attribute to their mothers' disease, which constrains both science and clinical practice. OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to develop and psychometrically evaluate the initial measures of child-reported, illness-related concerns associated with maternal cancer. METHODS: The study was conducted in three phases: scoping review, item extraction from a battery of items obtained from school-aged children about general issues related to their mothers' breast cancer, and testing of the three proposed structural models of these extracted items using confirmatory factor analysis. The scoping review yielded five categories of illness-related concerns: altered family routines, uncertainty, concerns about illness contagion, maternal death, and maternal well-being. To reflect these five categories, 18 items were extracted from a 93-item questionnaire completed by 202 school-aged children regarding their mothers' breast cancer. Next, three structural models were hypothesized to assess the construct validity of illness-related concerns: five-, three-, and one-factor models. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to test and compare the models. RESULTS: The five-factor model best fit the data, and each factor showed adequate internal consistency reliability. These findings align with the a priori five-factor model informed by the scoping review. CONCLUSION: The results provide initial evidence of the construct validity of the 18-item Children's Illness-Related Concerns Scale, which can be used to assess children's concerns and inform future intervention studies.

A pilot feasibility study of Conexiones, a telephone-delivered cancer parenting education program for Hispanic mothers.

OBJECTIVE: To test the short-term impact of Conexiones, a culturally adapted cancer parenting education program for diagnosed child-rearing Hispanic mothers. DESIGN: Single group, pre-post-test design. SAMPLE: 18 U.S. Hispanic mothers diagnosed within 2 years with early-stage cancer (0-III) raising a child (5-17 years). METHODS: Participants completed consent, baseline measures, and five telephone-delivered Conexiones sessions at 2-week intervals from trained patient educators in English or Spanish. Outcomes were assessed at baseline and at 3 months. RESULTS: Maternal depressed mood, parenting self-efficacy, and parenting quality significantly improved. Children's anxious/depressed mood tended to significantly improve. Outcomes did not co-vary with mothers' level of acculturation. CONCLUSIONS: Conexiones appears to positively improve Hispanic mothers' distress and parenting competencies; efficacy testing is warranted within a larger randomized control trial. IMPLICATIONS FOR PSYCHOSOCIAL PROVIDERS: A brief, culturally adapted cancer parenting education program has potential to enhance Hispanic mothers' and children's behavioral-emotional adjustment to a mother's cancer.

Helping Us Heal: telephone versus in-person marital communication and support counseling for spouse caregivers of wives with breast cancer.

PURPOSE: (1) To test the short-term impact of Helping Us Heal (HUSH), a telephone-delivered counseling program for spouse caregivers of women with breast cancer. (2) To compare outcomes from HUSH with outcomes from a historical control group which received the same program in-person. METHODS: Two-group quasi-experimental design using both within- and between-group analyses with 78 study participants, 26 in the within-group and 52 in the between-group analyses. Spouse caregivers were eligible if the wife was diagnosed within 8 months with stage 0-III breast cancer and were English-speaking. After obtaining signed informed consent and baseline data, 5 fully scripted telephone intervention sessions were delivered at 2-week intervals by patient educators. Spouses and diagnosed wives were assessed on standardized measures of adjustment at baseline and immediately after the final intervention session. RESULTS: Within-group analyses revealed that spouses and wives in HUSH significantly improved on depressed mood and anxiety; spouses improved on self-efficacy and their skills in supporting their wife. Additionally, wives' appraisal of spousal support significantly improved. Between-group analyses revealed that outcomes from HUSH were comparable or larger in magnitude to outcomes achieved by the in-person delivered program. CONCLUSIONS: A manualized telephone-delivered intervention given directly to spouse caregivers can potentially improve adjustment in both spouses and diagnosed wives but study outcomes must be interpreted with caution. Given the small samples in the pilot studies and the absence of randomization, further testing is needed with a more rigorous experimental design with a larger study sample.

Spouse caregivers' attributed gains from a skill-based counseling program.

OBJECTIVE: To describe spouse caregivers' perceived gains in their own words from participating in a fully manualized 5-session educational counseling program whose goals were to enhance their self-care and skills to interpersonally support their wife with breast cancer. METHODS: Interviews from 81 spouses obtained 7 months after exiting from a fully manualized educational counseling program, Helping Her Heal, were content analyzed using inductive coding methods adapted from grounded theory. Trustworthiness of study results was protected by coding to consensus, formal peer debriefing, and maintaining an audit trail. RESULTS: Analysis yielded 3 conceptual domains: Giving Me Structure; Adding Skills to Help Her and Us; and Gaining Insights into Myself and My Wife, all of which reflected practical things on which spouses could take action and ways they could take care of themselves, support their wife, and from which they gained insight into their own and their wife's response to the breast cancer. CONCLUSIONS: Findings suggest that short-term, fully manualized counseling programs can provide opportunities and practical ways spouse caregivers are able to gain interpersonal communication, self-care skills, and personal insights. This scripted model of counseling is a way in which to deliver educational counseling with self-reported benefits, even though the program is fully scripted and not uniquely fashioned for each caregiver's unique experience. CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBERS: NCI-2013-01838 .

A pilot feasibility study of a group-delivered cancer parenting program: Enhancing Connections-Group.

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to examine the feasibility and short-term impact of a 5-session fully manualized, group-delivered cancer parenting education program to diagnosed parents or surrogate parents with a school-age child. DESIGN: Single group, pre-post-test design with intent to treat analysis. SAMPLE: A total of 16 parents completed the program who were diagnosed within 12 months with non-metastatic cancer of any type (Stages 0-III), read and wrote English, had a child 5-17 years old who knew the parent's diagnosis. METHODS: Assessments occurred at baseline and at 2 months post-baseline on standardized measures of parental depressed mood, anxiety, parenting self-efficacy, parenting quality, parenting skills and child behavioral-emotional adjustment. FINDINGS/RESULTS: The program was feasible and well accepted: 16/18 (89%) of the enrolled participants were included in the intent to treat analysis. Program staff were consistently positive and enthusiastic about the demonstrated skills they observed in group attendees during the group-delivered sessions, including the emergence of support between attendees. Outcomes on all measures improved between baseline and post-intervention; changes were statistically significant on measures of parents' anxiety, parents' self-efficacy, parents' skills, and parenting quality. CONCLUSIONS: The group-delivered Enhancing Connections cancer parenting program has potential to improve behavioral-emotional outcomes on standardized measures of skills and emotional adjustment in parents, parent-surrogates and children. Future testing is warranted. IMPLICATIONS FOR PSYCHOSOCIAL PROVIDERS: After a brief training, a fully manualized cancer parenting program can enhance parenting competencies and parent-reported child outcomes.

Effects of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy on breast cancer survivors with insomnia: A randomised controlled trial.

OBJECTIVE: We investigated the effects of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy on insomnia (MBCT-I) in breast cancer survivors. METHODS: In total, 136 participants were allocated randomly to a MBCT-I group or a waitlist control (WLC) group. Indicators of insomnia and mindfulness were evaluated using the Insomnia Severity Index, actigraphy and the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire. Data were collected at baseline (T1), post-intervention (T2), 3-month follow-up (T3) and 6-month follow-up (T4) time points. RESULTS: Insomnia severity decreased significantly in the MBCT-I group, compared with the WLC group, at T2, T3 and T4 (all p < .001). We found that 59.6% of the MBCT-I group with moderate and severe insomnia improved to no insomnia and subclinical insomnia at T4 relative to T1, accounting for 7.9% and 55.3%, respectively. Compared with the WLC group, the MBCT-I group improved on actigraphy measures of sleep; they exhibited a pattern of decreased sleep onset latency and waking after sleep onset, as well as increased total sleep time and sleep efficiency. Mindfulness also increased more in the MBCT-I group than in the WLC group at T2, T3 and T4 (all p < .001). CONCLUSIONS: MBCT-I may be an efficacious non-pharmacologic intervention to improve sleep quality in breast cancer survivors.

A Qualitative Study of Parents' Experiences in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit: Riding a Roller Coaster.

PURPOSE: Post-traumatic stress disorder rates in parents following PICU admission ranged between 12.2% and 42%. Despite the numbers affected and the magnitude of parents' distress, little is known about parents' experience in the PICU that could be a source of their stress. This study sought to describe parents' experience of the PICU during their child's stay, including their perceived stressors. DESIGN AND METHODS: Single occasion interviews with 15 parents of children with complex medical conditions admitted for 48 or more hours to a tertiary PICU in the USA. Interviews were inductively coded using methods adapted from Grounded Theory. RESULTS: Riding a Roller Coaster was the core construct that explained parents' experiences. Analyses revealed four domains: Being in a New Stressful World, My Brain Is Burning All the Time, Going through a Hurricane of Emotions, and Being in a Safe Place with Great People. CONCLUSION: Despite outstanding medical services, parents were traumatized by seeing their child in a life-threatening situation and were buffeted by a tidal wave of emotions. Parents lived in a constant state of uncertainty, helplessness and fear, not knowing if their child would survive or have devastating outcomes or permanent disabilities. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: Supporting parents during their emotional roller coaster ride requires targeted services throughout the child's illness trajectory, including ways to interpret what is happening in the PICU, helping parents self-regulate their stress, and offering services around parents' fears, concerns, and strategies to manage their uncertainty and feelings of helplessness.

Upping my game as a parent: Attributed gains in participating in a cancer parenting program for child-rearing parents with advanced cancer.

OBJECTIVES: The objective of this study was to describe in the words of child-rearing parents with incurable cancer, what they had gained or thought about as a result of participating in a five-session, scripted, telephone-delivered psycho-educational parenting intervention, the Enhancing Connections Program in Palliative Care. METHODS: A total of 26 parents completed the program. Parents' responses were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim and verified for accuracy. The analysis proceeded through four steps: unitizing, coding into categories, defining categories, and formation of a core construct that explained parents' attributed gains. Trustworthiness of study results was protected by coding to consensus, formal peer debriefing, and maintaining an audit trail. RESULTS: Although 50% reached or exceeded clinical cutoff scores on anxiety and 42% reached or exceeded clinical cutoff scores on depressed mood, parents extensively elaborated what they gained. Results revealed six categories of competencies they attributed to their participation in the program: (1) being ready for a conversation about my cancer, (2) bringing things out in the open, (3) listening better to my child, (4) getting my child to open up, (5) not getting in my child's way, and (6) changing my parenting. CONCLUSIONS: Despite an extensive symptom burden, parents with incurable cancer attributed major gains from a brief, fully scripted, cancer parenting communication intervention. A manualized telephone-delivered educational counseling program for symptomatic parents with incurable cancer has the potential to augment competencies for parents as they assist their children manage the cancer experience.

Helping Her Heal: Randomized clinical trial to enhance dyadic outcomes in couples.

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to test the short-term efficacy of a brief, fully manualized marital communication and interpersonal support intervention for couples facing recently diagnosed breast cancer. METHODS: A total of 322 women diagnosed within 6 months with stages 0 to III breast cancer and their 322 spouse caregivers were enrolled. Spouses in the experimental group received five 30- to 60-minute intervention sessions at 2-week intervals by master's-prepared patient educators; controls received the booklet, "What's Happening to the Woman I Love?" Outcomes were assessed at 3, 6, and 9 months using the linear mixed models within an intent-to-treat analysis. RESULTS: Compared with controls, at 3 months, spouse caregivers significantly improved on standardized measures of depressed mood, anxiety, cancer-related marital communication, interpersonal support, and self-care. All differences except depressed mood and anxiety were sustained at 9 months. Wives significantly improved at 3 months on marital communication and positive appraisal of spouses' interpersonal support; gains remained significant at 9 months. Compared with controls on chemotherapy, wives in the experimental group additionally improved on depressed mood and tended to improve on anxiety. CONCLUSIONS: A brief, fully manualized intervention delivered directly to spouse caregivers early in the course of their wives' medical treatment improves caregivers' self-care and behavioral-emotional adjustment and wives' positive view of their spouses' support and communication. The brevity and manualized structure of the intervention argue strongly for its scalability, use in cost-sensitive settings, and its potential dissemination through e-health channels.

Study protocol: a randomized control trial of African American families fighting parental cancer together.

BACKGROUND: African American adults experience a disproportionate burden and increased mortality for most solid tumor cancers and their adolescent children are negatively impacted by the illness experience. The purpose of this randomized clinical trial is to evaluate the efficacy of a culturally sensitive family-based intervention program developed for African American families coping with solid tumor parental cancer using an intention-to-treat approach. Primary outcome is adolescent depressive symptoms at end of treatment. METHODS: A sample of 172 African American families will be enrolled from two diverse oncology centers (Helen Graham Cancer Center in Newark, DE, and Kimmel Cancer Center in Philadelphia, PA). Eligible families will be randomized either to a 5-session intervention Families Fighting Cancer Together (FFCT) or a 5-session parent-only psycho-educational (PED) program. Assessments will occur at weeks 0 (baseline), 8 (end-of-treatment), 24, and 52. DISCUSSION: Treatments to help African American adolescents cope with the impact of parental cancer are scarce and urgently needed. If successful, this proposed research will change the nature of intervention support options available to African Americans, who are overrepresented and underserved by existing services or programs. TRIAL REGISTRATION: This project is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov (Protocol #: NCT03567330).

The Enhancing Connections-Telephone study: a pilot feasibility test of a cancer parenting program.

PURPOSE: The purposes of the study were to (1) test the short-term impact of a telephone-delivered cancer parenting education program, the Enhancing Connections-Telephone (EC-T) Program, on maternal anxiety, depressed mood, parenting competencies, and child behavioral-emotional adjustment and (2) compare those outcomes with outcomes achieved from an in-person delivery of the same program (EC). METHODS: Thirty-two mothers comprised the sample for the within-group design and 77 mothers for the between-group design. Mothers were eligible if they had one or more dependent children and were recently diagnosed with stages 0-III breast cancer. Mothers in both groups received five intervention sessions at 2-week intervals from a patient educator using a fully scripted intervention manual. RESULTS: Outcomes from the within-group analysis revealed significant improvements on maternal anxiety, parenting competencies, and the child's behavioral-emotional functioning. Outcomes from the between-group analysis showed the EC-T did as well or better than EC in positively affecting maternal anxiety, depressed mood, parenting competencies, and the child's behavioral-emotional adjustment. Furthermore, the EC-T had a significantly greater impact than the EC on maternal confidence in helping their family and themselves manage the cancer's impact and in staying calm during emotionally charged conversations about the breast cancer with their child. CONCLUSIONS: Regardless of the channel of delivery, the Enhancing Connections Program has the potential to positively affect parenting competencies and behavioral-emotional adjustment in mothers and dependent children in the first year of stages 0-III maternal breast cancer. Its positive impact from telephone delivery holds promise for sustainability.

Becoming a person with HIV: experiences of Cambodian women infected by their spouses.

We conducted an interpretive phenomenological investigation in order to understand, within a Cambodian sociocultural context, the lived experiences of women infected with HIV by their husbands as they navigated the tasks of discovering, disclosing and dealing with the diagnosis. Using an open-ended interview protocol and an interpretive phenomenological approach, data were analysed from 15 women (aged 28-42 years) who self-identified the HIV transmission as coming from their spouses. Using qualitative inductive analysis, we were able to identify three main themes: (1) finding oneself to be HIV-positive, (2) encountering HIV--accepting an unwelcomed guest and (3) going public--dealing with the fear of discrimination. Participants consistently delayed testing for HIV and, after receiving an HIV-positive diagnosis, had to deal with painful emotions and discrimination within their social network. The complexity of gender roles and the sociocultural status of the women acted as behavioural determinants of their responses to HIV transmission from their spouses.

Culturally Embedded Risk Factors for Cambodian Husband-Wife HIV Transmission: From Women's Point of View.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to use interview data to examine the validity of a recently published theoretical model of HIV transmission between husband and virginal wives in rural Cambodia. DESIGN: This study used a qualitative description method with a sample of women diagnosed with HIV/AIDS in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. METHODS: Data were collected through in-depth interviews conducted with 15 women who self-identified as having contracted HIV from their HIV-positive husbands. Interviews were conducted in Khmer, translated and back-translated for accuracy, and then coded using deductive content analysis. Trustworthiness of study results was protected through peer debriefing, coding to consensus, and maintaining an audit trail. FINDINGS: Each conceptual domain of the prior published theoretical model of HIV transmission was validated and further elaborated by current study data: wives' acceptance of their husbands' involvement with commercial sex workers, the common practice of unprotected sex between HIV-infected spouses and uninfected wives, and wives' beliefs about the value of the ideal Khmer woman. In addition, the current study findings identified a new domain that substantially distinguished between the beliefs and attitudes held about marriage and sex by wives and spouses. CONCLUSIONS: Women were not passive recipients of HIV transmission; they reciprocated with behaviors that were consistent with being a good Khmer woman in rural Cambodia, all of which increased their vulnerability to HIV transmission from their HIV-infected spouses. Future interventions or programs should consider all these factors and not overly rely on simplistic educational messages about wearing barriers for HIV transmission during sex. CLINICAL RELEVANCE: The refined theoretical model of HIV transmission from this qualitative research can be used to formulate culturally sensitive and embedded programs for curbing intramarital HIV transmission in Cambodia among the rural poor.

Outcomes of a Pilot Intervention Study for Young Adults at Risk for Cardiovascular Disease Based on Their Family History.

BACKGROUND: Lifestyle choices have a significant impact on cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk. Interventions to promote a heart-healthy lifestyle in young adults at long-term high risk for CVD are needed to decrease the burden of CVD. However, few interventions with this purpose have been developed. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to examine the effect of a pilot intervention on young adults with a family history of CVD that used 3-generation pedigrees, risk factor information, and counseling on heart disease knowledge, perceived CVD risk, and intention to engage in a heart-healthy lifestyle. METHODS: A pretest-posttest design, with within-group analysis, was used to examine the effect of the intervention. Paired t test and Wilcoxon signed rank tests were used to examine the changes in heart disease knowledge, perceived risk, and behavioral intention from baseline to postintervention. The Cohen d was calculated to examine the effect of the intervention on study measures. In addition, Spearman ρ was used to examine the associations between postintervention perceived risk, postintervention behavioral intention, and family history. RESULTS: The sample for the pilot study included 15 mostly white and mostly female healthy young adults between the ages of 18 and 25 years. The intervention was effective at increasing CVD knowledge (P = .02) and had a medium effect on perceived risk and intention to engage in a heart-healthy lifestyle (Cohen d, 0.48-0.58). There were significant associations between postintervention perceived risk and postintervention intention to exercise and the participants' family history of coronary heart disease (r = 0.62, P = .014 and r = 0.55, P = .035, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: Interventions are needed to increase individuals' awareness of their long-term CVD risk and to improve their ability to make lifestyle changes. Although this intervention was only tested in a small sample, it shows promise to improve heart disease knowledge and perceived lifetime CVD risk and may effect longer-term risk for CVD.

Family history of cardiovascular disease, perceived cardiovascular disease risk, and health-related behavior: a review of the literature.

BACKGROUND: More than 82 million Americans have 1 or more forms of cardiovascular disease (CVD), accounting for 32.8% of all deaths in the United States. Although the evidence for the familial aggregation of CVD is strong, the relationship between family history (FH) of CVD, perceived risk for CVD, and health-related behavior is poorly understood. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this article was to review and summarize the published research on the relationship between an FH of CVD, an individual's perceived risk, and health-related behavior to make recommendations for clinical practice and future research. METHODS: A literature search was conducted using PubMed, CINAHL Plus, and PsycINFO to identify articles that examined the relationship between an FH of CVD, perceived CVD risk, and health-promoting behaviors. A total of 263 unique articles were reviewed. A total of 238 were excluded, resulting in a total of 25 articles included in the review. RESULTS: There was a positive relationship between a reported FH of CVD and perceived risk. However, the relationship between an FH of CVD and health-related behavior change and perceived risk and behavior change was inconsistent. CONCLUSIONS: A person's awareness of his or her FH of CVD or his or her own risk for CVD is not a sufficient predictor of changes in his or her health-related behavior. Future studies are needed to better explain the processes by which perceived CVD risk or FH of CVD can be used to affect health-related behavior changes. It appears that both FH and perceived personal risk for CVD are necessary but not sufficient conditions to change health-related behavior in high-risk populations. Future studies should also test interventions that help individuals with an FH of CVD attribute increased personal risk to themselves for developing CVD, while providing lifestyle management options to minimize their risk.

Helping Her Heal-Group: a pilot study to evaluate a group delivered educational intervention for male spouses of women with breast cancer.

BACKGROUND: Distress in husbands of women with early-stage breast cancer may be equivalent to or even higher than their wives. Husbands often struggle to help and support their wives cope with the illness and its treatment. In response, we developed a five-session group educational counselling intervention (Helping Her Heal-Group (HHH-G)) for husbands of women with early-stage breast cancer. The primary aim of the current pilot study was to determine the acceptability and feasibility of HHH-G and to obtain a preliminary estimate of its impact on participating men's skills, self-confidence and self care. Secondary aims were to assess the impact of the intervention on both the participating spouses' and wives' ratings of marital quality and depressed mood. METHODS: The study employed a one-arm, pre-post-intervention design whereby participating men (n=54) and their wives (n=54) independently completed measures at baseline (T0), immediately following the last session (T1) and 3 months after the last session (T2). RESULTS: Overall, there was very high study retention (87%). On the basis of the questionnaire data, we found significant improvements in spouses' self-efficacy (p<0.001) and self-reported skills including wife support (p=0.003) and self-care (p<0.001). In addition, there was a significant improvement in wives' mood scores (p=0.003). Post-intervention interviews support acceptability and impact of the HHH-G intervention, and provide support for the group format of the program. CONCLUSIONS: The feasibility and acceptability of HHH-G was supported, and treatment outcomes suggest the potential benefits of the intervention. Phase III evaluation of HHH-G program is warranted.

HIV transmission from husbands to wives in Cambodia: a systematic review of the literature.

HIV transmission in Cambodia has declined considerably in recent years, yet new incidents of HIV transmission within marital relationships have increased. Evidence suggests that the cause of this is transmission from HIV-positive men to their HIV-negative spouses. The objective of this paper is to develop an evidence-based model of HIV transmission from husbands to wives in Cambodia in a context of culture and society, drawing from the published literature. A critical analysis of peer reviewed literature, professional papers, policy reports and reference books identified four plausible factors influencing inter-spousal HIV transmission: (1) a hierarchical male-dominated society, (2) husbands' involvement with sex workers, (3) cultural values concerning the ideal Khmer woman and (4) unprotected sex between an HIV-infected husband and his uninfected wife. This evidence-based explanatory model can be used to inform future culturally appropriate HIV-education and prevention programmes.