# Efficacy of a Couple-focused, Tailored, Symptom Self-Management mHealth Intervention for Prostate Cancer Patients and Partners

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIV OF NORTH CAROLINA CHAPEL HILL · 2021 · $471,163

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
Over 180,000 men will be diagnosed with localized prostate cancer in 2016 and 92% of these men will have localized or
regional disease. Fortunately, treatment with curative intent (surgery or radiation with/without hormone therapy) provides
long-term cancer-free survival. However, survivors experience urinary, sexual, bowel and hormonal symptoms, general
distress, pain, fatigue, and sleep disturbance. For men in an intimate relationship, these symptoms disrupt couple’s
relationships and intimacy, and reduce quality of life (QOL) of both patients and their partners who are often their primary
caregivers. Symptom effects may have as great or greater impact on their partners’ QOL than on patients’ own QOL.
Management of the negative effects of cancer and its treatment is a significantly under-addressed supportive care need for
these men and their intimate partners. Most existing online programs are not couple-focused or use generalized “one-size
fits all” approaches that have fallen short of improving QOL. Existing in-person couple-focused programs are expensive
and inconvenient because of the time and travel required. To address these unmet supportive care needs, Dr. Song led an
interdisciplinary team to develop and pilot test the usability and feasibility of an evidence-based, couple-focused, tailored
mobile health (mHealth) intervention, “Prostate Cancer Education & Resources for Couples” (PERC). Based on the
adapted stress-coping theoretical framework and developed with stakeholder involvement, PERC aims to improve QOL
for both patients and partners through enhancing positive appraisals, self-efficacy, social support, and healthy behaviors
for symptom management. Using mHealth technologies, PERC provides comprehensive, user-friendly content, and uses
tailoring and personalization features designed to increase personal relevance of, and couples’ accessibility to PERC
modules. We propose to rigorously test the efficacy of PERC using a population-based, geographically and
demographically diverse cohort in a randomized controlled trial. The specific aims are: Primary Aim: Assess if patients
and partners receiving PERC will report greater improvement in their cancer-related QOL scores than those in the control
group (usual care plus the National Cancer Institute (NCI) prostate cancer website) at 4, 8, and 12 months post-baseline.
Secondary Aim: Test if patients and partners in PERC will report significantly more positive appraisals and higher levels
of coping resources at follow-ups than those in the control group. Exploratory Aim: Determine if patient race and
ethnicity, education, type of treatment, or couples’ relationship quality moderate the effects of PERC on patient and
partner QOL at follow-ups. This study will provide a novel model for self-managing chronic illness symptoms that impact
couples’ relationships, intimacy, and QOL. It addresses the National Institute of Nursing Research’s (NINR) goal to
develop and test ...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10200890
- **Project number:** 5R01NR016990-05
- **Recipient organization:** UNIV OF NORTH CAROLINA CHAPEL HILL
- **Principal Investigator:** Lixin Song
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $471,163
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2017-09-25 → 2023-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10200890

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10200890, Efficacy of a Couple-focused, Tailored, Symptom Self-Management mHealth Intervention for Prostate Cancer Patients and Partners (5R01NR016990-05). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10200890. Licensed CC0.

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