Crogan et al. (2008)

Paradigmatic position:

Positivist

Methodology:

Randomised control trial with repeated measures

Aim: To use storytelling with aid of a tool kit (See Evans et al., 2008 above) to discuss loss of control, hopes for positive outcomes and relationship guided by a developed tool

Eligibility Criteria: 1) any cancer type 2) be able to speak English, 3) willing to receive care from a physician and allow access to medical records. Exclusion: 1) receiving psychotherapy or had a psychiatric diagnosis 2) the use of psychotropic medication, 3) inability to comply with study protocol (e.g., attendance of sessions) 4) individuals “experiencing difficulties” (psychological) were excluded and referred to a counsellor

Participants:

10 completed (9 female and 1 male) pre test (7 completed post test)

Cancer type: any type

Sampling Technique:

Convenience

Setting: Oncology clinic at medical centre

Treatment details: story telling intervention across 12 sessions

Country: USA

Length: 12 × 1.5 hour story telling sessions

Content: Session facilitated by a designed tool kit

Assessor/Researcher/HCPs involved: Nurse facilitator of sessions. Assessor unclear.

Cost: not identified.

Development rationale: Tool kit to enable stories to be elicited, told and heard in a non judgemental way to allow meaning to be found in experience.

Outcome measure assessment:

Index of Clinical Stress (Abell, 1991)

Cantril’s ladder (Kilpatrick and Cantril, 1960)

McGill Pain Questionnaire (Melzack, 1975)

Satisfaction with Life Scale (Diener et al., 1985)

Physical self efficacy scale (Ryckman et al., 1982)

Brief Depression Rating Scale (Kellner, 1986)

Methods: Patient reported outcome measure

Outcome measure development/Pilot work: Content validity and internal consistency, predictive validity reported for each outcome measure.

Duration of interview: Not applicable.

Analysis: Repeated measures ANOVA with normality testing and association tested with Pearson and Spearman rank correlation.

Falzon et al. (2015)

Paradigmatic position:

Post-positivist

Methodology:

Randomised control trial

Aim: Examine and compare two messages which promote physical activity.

Eligibility Criteria: 1) women 40 years of age or older 2) diagnosis with stage I-III 3) receiving chemotherapy 4) not meeting physical activity recommendations in past 6 months 5) written informed consent and ability to speak French.

Participants:

158

Cancer type:

Breast cancer

Sampling Technique:

Setting: Cancer centre private clinic

Treatment details: 3 conditions

Country: France

Length: Read a testimony (2 types) and a control group over 1 session

Content: random allocation to three groups: 1) breast cancer testimony, 2) expert recommendations to read, 3) control group with no message.

Assessor/Researcher/HCPs involved: Researcher blind to process

Cost: N/A

Development rationale: unclear benefit of narrative messages

Outcome measure assessment:

Source Trust adapted questions from McQueen and Kreuter (2010)

Exercise self-efficacy using three items on a likert scale

Belief about exercise in cancer patients adapted from the Adapted Stereotypes and Exercise Scale (Chalabaev et al., 2013)

Exercise intension 1 item scale

Methods: Randomised control trial

Outcome measure development/Pilot work: Not detailed

Duration of interview: N/A.

Analysis: ANOVA and t-test. 5000 bootstrap samples.