Variation in resources needed to implement psychosocial support interventions for rural breast cancer survivors

Understanding how resources are used provides guidance to disseminating effective interventions. Here, we report data on implementation resources needed for the Rural Breast Cancer Survivors (RBCS) study that tested a telephone-delivered psychoeducational education and support intervention to survivors in rural Florida. Intervention resources included interventionists' time on one intake assessment (IA) call, three education calls (ED), one follow-up education call (FUE), six support (SUP) calls, and documentation time per survivor.

Interventionists logged start and end times of each type of call. Average interventionist time in minutes was calculated by call type. Associations between interventionists' time and participants' characteristics including age, race/ethnicity, time since treatment, cancer treatment, depressive symptoms, education, income, employment, and support, was assessed using linear mixed models with repeated measures.

Among 328 survivors, IA calls lasted 66.9 min (SD 21.7); ED lasted 50.6 (SD 16.7), 48.1 (SD 15.9), and 39.6 (SD 14.8); FUE lasted 24.7 (SD 14.8); and SUP 42.8 (SD 29.6) min. Documentation time was 18.4 min for IA, 23-27 for ED, 12.3 for FUE, and 23.0 for SUP.

Interventionists spent significantly more time with participants with depressive symptoms, who already used other support, and who received SUP calls before the ED vs. after. There were no significant differences by time since or type of cancer treatment, or other personal characteristics.

Resources vary by survivor characteristics. Careful consideration of mental health status or support available is warranted for planning implementation and dissemination of effective survivorship interventions on a broad scale.