A comparison between weekly 'snap-shot' and daily diary methods of measuring fear of cancer recurrence in patients with breast cancer

Gerry Humphris, Hannah Dixon

Research output: Contribution to journalAbstract

Abstract

Background/Purpose: Fear of cancer recurrence (FCR) is one of the major concerns of patients diagnosed with cancer that has marked consequences on health care utilisation. Assessment of this concern is paramount to determine a patient’s level of FCR during the health care process. Questions are raised whether to use regular intermittent (i.e. weekly snapshots) or frequent daily diary ratings of FCR. The aim of this study was to estimate the association of weekly versus daily ratings of FCR. Method: Patients with breast cancer attending a regional cancer centre (n=92 sampled consecutively) for radiotherapy treatment completed a weekly seven item FCR measure (FCR7) and a reduced set of items in a daily diary consisting of three questions (FCR3). Latent growth curves were constructed using MPlus (version 7.4) so that the association between the trajectories of the 4-weekly FCR7 and the 15 daily diary FCR3 assessments could be calculated. Results: A strong association between the two trajectories of the weekly and daily assessments was found (r=0.90, p<.001) as well baseline intercepts (r=0.92, p<.001). Conclusions and implications: The investigator can have some reassurance that multiple assessment of FCR on a weekly or daily basis share a high degree of association. The basis of selecting the frequency of assessment will rely on the theoretical question of the phenomena under investigation. Researchers who wish to investigate the influence of events in finer detail over time might find in-depth daily diary methods particularly revealing for investigation of the dynamics of FCR.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)S152-S152
JournalInternational Journal of Behavioral Medicine
Volume28
Issue numberSUPPL 1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 5 Jun 2021

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