Presenting Author:

Stephanie Schuette, B.A.

Principal Investigator:

David Victorson, Ph.D.

Department:

Medical Social Sciences

Keywords:

health behavior change, active surveillance, prostate cancer

Location:

Ryan Family Atrium, Robert H. Lurie Medical Research Center

C33 - Clinical

"HEALTHPRO": Development of a Comprehensive Health Promotion Course

BACKGROUND: The rigorous evaluation of integrative oncology clinical research interventions depends on control conditions that provide equal time and attention to treatment, don’t overlap treatment content or hypothesized mechanisms of action, and yet still offer control participants with sufficient perceived benefit to want to enroll. The purpose of this abstract is to present the development of an 8-week time/attention matched health-promotion course that may serve as an active control condition when researching mindfulness based stress reduction (MBSR) and other integrative oncology treatments. METHODS: We began by searching the literature for existing health promotion courses, evidence-based practices, and theoretical foundations of health behavior change to identify relevant themes for class content. A parallel goal was to match the length, duration, content, and homework activities with health promotion equivalents to MBSR. Following an iterative process, materials were created and assembled in a developmentally sequenced manner, and were pre-tested in several internal focus groups until a final version was created. RESULTS: The following eight core areas were established: 1) health behavioral change, 2) physical activity, 3) nutrition, 4) emotional wellness, 5) weight management, 6) pain, sleep, and fatigue management, and 8) long term health behavior maintenance. The resulting course called, “HealthPro”, begins with an orientation session, is 8-weeks in length, meets weekly for 2.5 hours, and has a 4-hour “retreat” between weeks 6 and 7. The course was designed to be facilitated by someone with a minimum of a bachelor’s degree. Each class begins with an informational presentation, followed by interactive didactic activities, and concludes with low-intensity group movement. Class activities and homework are designed to increase participants’ self-awareness and efficacy towards positive health behavior change. CONCLUSION: HealthPro offers integrative oncology researchers with a time and attention-matched control intervention to systematically evaluate MBSR and other integrative oncology interventions with cancer patient populations.