The Effect of Group Counselling on Health Promoting Lifestyle and Quality of Life in Women who have undergone Mastectomy: A Randomized Controlled Clinical Trial

Abstract

Abstract Introduction: Health promoting lifestyle is a useful resource for reducing stressful factors in life and improving quality of life, and has a significant impact on reducing health costs, increasing individuals’ life span and improving their quality of life. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of counseling on the health promoting lifestyle (primary outcome) and quality of life (secondary outcome) in mastectomized women. Materials and Methods: This randomized controlled clinical trial was conducted on 76 mastectomized women referred to the Breast Cancer Supportive Association and Shahid Ghazi Tabatabai hospital in Tabriz-Iran, 2017-18. Eligible mastectomized women were randomly assigned to two groups of counseling and control groups through blocked randomization method. For the intervention group, six 45-90-minute counseling sessions about health promotion behaviors and quality of life were presented. The Health Promoting Lifestyle Profile (HPLP-II) and Quality of Life Questionnaire-Cancer 30 (QLQ – C30) were completed before and four and eight weeks after the intervention. Data were analyzed using independent t-tests, repeated measures analysis of variance and Mann–Whitney U test. Results: No significant differences were found between the two groups in terms of socio-demographic characteristics and baseline scores of health-promoting lifestyle and quality of life (p>0.05). After the intervention, repeated measures ANOVA with adjustment for baseline values showed that, the mean scores of health-promoting lifestyle (adjusted mean difference=0.50, 95% confidence interval: 0. 39 to 0.62, P<0.001) and total score of quality of life (P<0.001) were significantly higher in counseling group compared to control group. The mean scores of all sub-domains of health promotion lifestyle and emotional function, social function, role function and cognitive function sub-domains of quality of life in counseling group were significantly higher than control group (P<0.05). Conclusions: Counseling can improve health-promoting lifestyle and therefore quality of life in mastectomized women.