Couplelinks - an online intervention for young women with breast cancer and their male partners: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial

Abstract

BackgroundYoung breast cancer survivors (aged 50 years and under) and their partners are at an elevated risk for relationship distress and poor psychological adjustment relative to older age couples. Limited availability of time and resources and the distance to travel are major barriers to engaging in evidence-based psychosocial support programs. This paper describes the study protocol of a novel, manualized online intervention called Couplelinks that was developed to improve relationship adjustment and psychological wellbeing of young couples affected by breast cancer. Couplelinks is a custom-designed website offering a professionally facilitated, couple-centered intervention that entails informational, experiential, and interactive components.Methods/DesignA total of 80 heterosexual couples from across Canada in which the female partner has been diagnosed with a primary breast cancer will be recruited and randomized to a treatment or waitlist control group. Six dyadic learning modules form the core of the program and will be undertaken on a weekly basis. The manualized online intervention involves psycho-education and experiential exercises to enhance communication, coping ability, mutual empathy, and perspective-taking in relation to cancer. An online facilitator who is a trained mental health professional will guide and support couples throughout the process. Data collection will occur at baseline, at post-treatment or eight weeks into the waiting period, and at the three-month follow-up assessment. Primary outcome measures include the Revised Dyadic Adjustment Survey (RDAS) and Dyadic Coping Inventory (DCI) scores, and secondary outcome measures include the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Survey (HADS) score.DiscussionCouplelinks is one of the first internet-based psychological interventions to improve the psychosocial adjustment of couples coping with a life-threatening illness such as cancer. If successful, the design of this program as described in this paper makes a valuable contribution to the literature on the delivery of couple-focused psychosocial interventions, both within and outside of oncology.Trial registrationThis trial was registered with ClinicalTrials.gov (identifier: NCT01089764) on 17 March 2010.

A Model of Engagement Promotion in a Professionally Facilitated Online Intervention for Couples Affected by Breast Cancer

“…Six couples were selected from a pool of 24 couples who, at the commencement of the present analysis, had completed their participation in an ongoing Phase III randomized controlled trial of Couplelinks (RCT: Fergus et al., ). After engagement in the intervention was rated for all 24 couples (details of engagement rating method are below), in line with the task analysis procedure of specifying three exemplars from contrasting groups (Greenberg, ), three couples with the highest and three couples with the lowest engagement levels were selected.…”

“…Spurred by evidence supporting the crucial role of dyadic coping in cancer adjustment, as well as the growing body of literature demonstrating the efficacy of online interventions (Bouma et al., ; Northouse et al., ), a professionally facilitated online intervention called Couplelinks was developed to support younger patients and their partners in adapting to breast cancer (Fergus et al., ). The primary aim of the intervention was to help differentiate the relationship from the illness in order to mitigate the risk of the relationship becoming defined by the illness.…”

Sexual and Romantic Relationships: Experiences of Adolescent and Young Adult Cancer Survivors

“…Effective couple-based interventions from adult oncology could be adapted for this population. 23 Specifically, interventions that focus on enhancing communication within the dyad, perspective taking, and promoting physical intimacy may be effective for this population.…”

Managing psychosocial issues faced by young women with breast cancer at the time of diagnosis and during active treatment

“…Although many women find support and improvement in family relationships following breast cancer treatment, intimate partner relationships are often more strained for younger women. Resources are available to support partners, such as those listed at Susan G. Komen for the Cure’s website, and interventions have been developed, such as Fergus’ Couplelinks, an online support intervention for young couples coping with breast cancer [38,39]. Many women express an immediate need for support in helping their children through the diagnosis [40], and books with pictures are a main source of information for young children.…”