Resource use in women completing treatment for breast cancer

Objective: To explore resources used by women completing treatment for brea st cancer, how they learned about them, and the psychological factors that predicted their use. Designs A questionnaire on resource use was administered as part of a rando mized clinical trial which assessed subjects' psychosocial characteristics and tested the outcomes of a psychosocial intervention. Setting: Women completing treatment for breast cancer were recruited from t he oncology departments of three university-teaching hospitals in Montreal. A questionnaire gathered data on the resources used by the subjects, how t hey learned about them, and the role of the health care team in their decis ion-making. Emotional distress, dimensions of coping effort, a sense of con trol and optimism were also measured. Results: Five categories of resources were explored; professional services, informal support networks, informational resources, support organizations and complementary therapies. Most women found out about the last two resour ces by themselves. Women who used cancer support organizations or complemen tary therapies scored high on the use of problem-solving coping and low on the use of escape/avoidance coping. In addition they were moderately optimi stic, had a slightly lower sense of personal control and were somewhat more distressed than the non-users. The use of support organizations and comple mentary therapies appears to represent a thoughtful approach to dealing wit h the distress of cancer. The opinion of the oncologist regarding resource use was valued by nearly half of the sample. Copyright (C) 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.