Couple-based lifestyle intervention for minority prostate cancer survivors: a randomized feasibility trial

Black and Hispanic prostate cancer (PCa) survivors, who face a high burden of comorbid conditions and often engage in low levels of physical activity and healthy eating, remain significantly underrepresented in lifestyle intervention studies.

Given the significance of spousal influence, we developed a culturally tailored lifestyle intervention for these survivors and their spouses and assessed its feasibility, acceptability, and impact on behavioral change.

Survivor-spouse couples were randomly assigned to an intervention group (n = 22), which received 12 health-coaching calls over 6 months, or a usual-care control group (n = 9). Assessments were conducted at baseline (T1), mid-intervention (T2, month 3), and post-intervention (T3, month 6).

The mean attendance was 10.58 sessions, and the intervention received high acceptability scores. Assessment completion rates were 84% at T2 and 81% at T3 for survivors, and 77% at T2 and 81% at T3 for spouses. Intervention group survivors showed meaningful improvements in diet quality from T1 to T2 (+ 6.56) and a clinically important increase in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) from T1 to T3 (+ 17.5 min/day on average). Intervention group spouses also showed meaningful improvements in diet quality from T1 to T2 (+ 8.19) and from T1 to T3 (+ 6.34) and MVPA from T1 to T3 (+ 17.3 min/day on average). Control group participants showed improvements in MVPA.

This couple-based lifestyle intervention is feasible, highly accepted, and promising for improving healthy lifestyle behaviors among Black and Hispanic PCa survivors and their spouses. The results should be carefully interpreted and replicated in an adequately powered trial.