The Effect of an Information Support Program on Self-Efficacy of Prostate Cancer Patients during Hormonal Therapy

Objective: This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of an information support program on the self-efficacy (SE) of prostate cancer (PCa) patients receiving hormonal therapy (HT). Methods: Based on the information support program constructed in a previous study, a randomized controlled trial was conducted in a cancer hospital in Shanghai, China. One hundred subjects were randomly divided into two groups. The control group was provided routine care and communication, and the experimental group participated in an informational support program. Three months later, the following outcomes were compared between the two groups: information acquisition, disease knowledge mastery, SE, healthy behavior adherence, health-related quality of life (HRQoL), and serum prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels. t-test and Wilcoxon rank-sum test were used to compare the differences between the two groups, and intention-to-treat analysis was used to increase the reliability of the results. Results: After the intervention, information acquisition, disease knowledge mastery, and the SE and healthy behavior adherence of the experimental group were significantly increased compared with the control group, whereas the HRQoL and PSA did not significantly differ from that observed in the control group. Conclusions: The results showed that information support programs improve information acquisition, disease knowledge mastery, SE, and healthy behavior adherence among PCa patients receiving HT.