The AYUDA Pilot-Study Intervention: Psychosocial Support for Underserved Spanish-Speaking Latinas Undergoing Breast Cancer Treatment

Abstract

The evidence is limited on whether psychological interventions that are culturally and linguistically targeted to Spanish-speaking Latina breast cancer (BC) survivors can improve their mental health outcomes. Using mixed methods, we developed, and pilot tested a culturally adapted intervention named AYUDA (means “help” in Spanish). In-depth qualitative interviews of Spanish-speaking Latinas (n = 7) diagnosed with BC were conducted to develop the culturally congruent content of the psychosocial intervention. Employing a one-group intervention-only research design, we pilot tested and evaluated the intervention’s implementation and patient-reported outcomes (PROs) with Latina BC survivors (n = 9) who had low socioeconomic status (SES). The AYUDA intervention was feasible (82% retention rate), acceptable, and highly deliverable to Spanish-speaking Latina BC survivors undergoing treatment. Participants preferred in-person sessions over using telehealth, but easily participated in telephone sessions. Although there were no significant changes in PROs from pre- to post-intervention, the measured outcomes showed overall improvement and allowed us to estimate the potential effects of the intervention on PROs that are important to improve Latina BC patients’ mental health outcomes. Although less preferable to Latinas, they equally engaged in telehealth sessions as they did during in-person sessions. Our study can aid in designing and testing the intervention’s comparative effectiveness in a more robust randomized control trial.