Surviving Daily Life

Overview

The primary goal of this project is to evaluate the feasibility of a 14-day mobile daily diary study among racially diverse breast cancer survivors. Further, the investigators will examine the validity and reliability of the daily stress and daily cognitive performance measures among breast cancer survivors. This pilot project will recruit 30 racially diverse breast cancer survivors (Asian, Black, Latina, and white; ages 40 and older; at least five years post-diagnosis) who are patients at the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center. The daily diary survey questions will be available in English, Spanish, and Chinese to accommodate the preferred language of the target participants.

This is a pilot study that will assess the feasibility of a 14-day mobile daily diary survey to measure daily stress and cognitive performance among long-term breast cancer survivors. Participants will be recruited from the Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center (SKCC) at Thomas Jefferson University (TJU). Potential participants will be identified via the SKCC/TJU Tumor Registry. Potential participants will be contacted with their cancer care team approval. Contact may be accomplished via an upcoming clinical appointment, phone, email, or MyChart (RLS) depending on the patient's communication preference or clinical team guidance. Participants will start study procedures by completing the baseline survey using the mobile phone (day 1) to collect demographic and socioeconomic status information. Starting from day 2 to day 14, participants will complete the short morning (2-3 min) and slightly longer (5-7 min) evening mobile daily diary surveys. The morning survey asks questions about sleep, morning outlook, and anticipatory stress and positive experiences. The evening survey asks questions about the respondent's daily experiences (stressors, mood, physical symptoms). After each survey, respondents will complete three brief objective cognitive tasks. To minimize the risk of data breach, all the information from the survey will be stored on the password protected study mobile phone. The study mobile phones will be set up to ensure that it can only be used for study purposes, that is, participants are unable to make phone calls or connect to the internet with the study phone. Findings from this pilot project will provide critical preliminary evidence regarding the feasibility of a mobile daily diary method among racially diverse breast cancer survivors, as well as the reliability and validity of the important measures related to daily stress, daily cognitive performance, and daily cognitive problems in racially diverse populations.