Methods According to the inclusion and exclusion criteria, 160 female breast cancer patients who lived in two large communities of Nanjing and underwent surgery in the Department of Breast Diseases, First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University from January 2019 to March 2020 were enrolled for a prospective study. The patients living in pilot area served as experimental group(n=80), and the patients living in non-pilot area served as control group(n=80). The patients in control group received whole-course case management and the patients in experimental group received guided care. The Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Breast Cancer (FACT-B), Posttraumatic Growth Inventory (PTGI) and Social Support Rating Scale (SSRS) were used to evaluate the quality of life, post-traumatic growth and social support of all patients at 1 day before intervention, 3 and 6 months after intervention, respectively. The Morisky Medication Adherence Scale 8-item version was used to evaluate the medication compliance of patients taking endocrine drugs in both groups at 1, 3 and 6 months after intervention. The scores of each scale were analyzed with repeated measures analysis of variance.
Results At 1 day before intervention, 3 and 6 months after intervention, the total scores of FACT-B in experimental group were 87.61±8.23, 98.59±8.13, and 103.01±8.30, which were significantly higher than 87.50±9.02, 91.50±8.59 and 96.35±7.62 in control group, respectively (time effect, F=88.637, P<0.001; grouping effect, F=35.159, P<0.001; interactive effect, F=9.051, P<0.001). At 1, 3 and 6 months after intervention, the scores of medication compliance were 6.97±0.76, 7.22±0.65 and 7.29±0.61 in experimental group, and 6.70±1.01, 6.91±0.83 and 7.01±0.72 in control group, suggesting a significant difference between groups and between different time points, but with no interaction (time effect, F=42.302, P<0.001; grouping effect, F=4.303, P=0.040; interactive effect, F=0.718, P=0.490). At 1 day before intervention, 3 and 6 months after intervention, the total scores of PTGI were 63.58±8.95, 72.95±10.30 and 75.95±8.58 in experimental group, and 63.25±7.98, 68.61±8.92 and 74.69±9.32 in control group, respectively, suggesting a significant difference between groups and between different time points, but with no interaction (time effect, F=75.279, P<0.001; grouping effect, F=5.123, P=0.025; interactive effect, F=2.296, P=0.102). At 1 day before intervention, 3 and 6 months after intervention, the total scores of SSRS were 33.44±4.59, 38.56±5.22 and 44.50±6.93 in experimental group, which were significantly higher than 34.00±5.47, 35.74±5.69 and 39.69±6.28 in control group, respectively (time effect, F=74.906, P<0.001; grouping effect, F=21.712, P<0.001; interactive effect, F=8.800, P<0.001).