News & Information > News Room > Press Releases > 2009
February 01, 2009 — Online Narrative Interventions and Family Support for Midlife Patients with Advanced Cancer began in February 2009. Principal Investigator: Meg Wise, PhD. Co-investigators include Jim Cleary, MD (Medicine and Public Health), Lucile Marchand, MD (Family Medicine), and Linda Roberts, PhD (Department of Human Development and Family Studies).
This study builds upon research on cancer patients' well-being and their use of the internet. Middle aged people with advanced cancer have greater distress than their older early-stage cancer counterparts; existential pain is a greater source of distress than physical pain; and meaning-focused life review reduces distress and increases a sense of life meaning and legacy in hospice patients. Interactive Cancer Communication programs like CHESS that deliver information, peer discussion boards, and active problem-solving tools improve patient experience. However, many midlife patients use web 2.0 platforms create their personal websites where they post their stories (in multi-media formats) and share them with their invited social network. Web 2.0 can thus transform the patient's life story into a living story.
Our two-year developmental study will implement and evaluate the following My Living Story intervention components:
We will recruit and randomize 100 people, age 30-60, with Stage III or IV cancer to test whether My Living Story reduces psychological distress and increases existential/spiritual well-being, social support, and sense of generativity/legacy. We will also conduct qualitative analysis of the social network communication on participants' individual miLivingStory websites.