The benefits of expressive writing among newly diagnosed mainland Chinese breast cancer patients

• Published in: Journal of behavioral medicine 2020-06, Vol.43 (3), p.468-478
• Main Authors: Ji, Li-li, Lu, Qian, Wang, Li-juan, Sun, Xiang-lian, Wang, Hui-dong, Han, Bing-xue, Ma, Yu-feng, Lu, Guo-hua
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adaptation, Psychological; Adult; Asian Continental Ancestry Group; Breast cancer; Breast Neoplasms - diagnosis; Breast Neoplasms - psychology; Cancer patients; Care and treatment; Composition (Language arts); Coping (Psychology); Cytotoxicity; Emotional regulation; Emotions; Family Medicine; Female; General Practice; Health aspects; Health Psychology; Humans; Lymphocytes T; Medical diagnosis; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Methods; Middle Aged; Newly diagnosed; Psychological aspects; Quality of Life; Self regulation; Survival; Well being; Writing
• ISSN: 0160-7715; 1573-3521
• DOI: 10.1007/s10865-019-00127-z

The study aimed to evaluate the effects of an expressive writing intervention on quality of life (QoL) among mainland Chinese breast cancer patients. A total of 118 Chinese breast cancer patients were randomly assigned to one of four groups: a cancer-facts writing condition (CTL group), an emotional disclosure writing condition (EMO group), a self-regulation writing condition (SR group), or a neutral control condition with no writing tasks (CON group). QoL was assessed by FACT-B at baseline, 3-, and 6-month follow-ups. A repeated measure analysis of variance revealed significant effects of time (F = 13.9, P