Out of the black box: expansion of a theory-based intervention to self-manage the uncertainty associated with active surveillance (AS) for prostate cancer.

Journal Article (Journal Article)

Active surveillance (AS) (sometimes referred to as watchful waiting) is an alternative approach to managing low-risk forms of prostate cancer. This management approach allows men to avoid expensive prostate cancer treatments and their well-documented adverse events of erectile dysfunction and incontinence. However, AS is associated with illness uncertainty and reduced quality of life (QOL; Wallace, 2003). An uncertainty management intervention (UMI) was developed by Mishel et al. (2002) to manage uncertainty in women treated for breast cancer and men treated for prostate cancer. However, the UMI was not developed for men undergoing AS for prostate cancer and has not been adequately tested in this population. This article reports on the expansion of a theory-based intervention to manage the uncertainty associated with AS for prostate cancer. Intervention Theory (Sidani & Braden, 1998) is discussed as a framework for revising the UMI intervention for men undergoing AS for prostate cancer (UMI-AS). The article concludes with plans for testing of the expanded intervention and implications for the extended theory.

Full Text

Duke Authors

Cited Authors

  • Kazer, MW; Bailey, DE; Whittemore, R

Published Date

  • January 2010

Published In

Volume / Issue

  • 24 / 2

Start / End Page

  • 101 - 112

PubMed ID

  • 20549916

International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)

  • 1541-6577

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

  • 10.1891/1541-6577.24.2.101

Language

  • eng