Effectiveness of peer support on health-related quality of life in recently diagnosed breast cancer patients : a randomized controlled trial

Purpose: Breast cancer is the most common cancer of Finnish women. Peer support could be a way to help breast cancer patients to deal with the disease but studies on its effectiveness have produced conflicting results. The aim of this randomized controlled trial was to study the effectiveness of peer support on health-related quality of life (HRQoL) of breast cancer patients. Methods: Patients with recently diagnosed breast cancer at the Helsinki University Hospital were randomly allocated to intervention (n = 130) or control (n = 130) groups. The intervention group patients received peer support via telephone one to five times according to their preference. The control group received usual…