Elevated stress can exacerbate cancer symptom severity, and after completion of primary cancer treatments, many individuals continue to have significant distress. Mindfulness-Based Cancer Recovery (MBCR) is an 8-week group psychosocial intervention consisting of training in mindfulness meditation and yoga designed to mitigate stress, pain, and chronic illness. Efficacy research shows face-to-face (F2F) MBCR programs have positive benefits for cancer patients; however barriers exist that impede participation in F2F groups. While online MBCR groups are available to the public, none have been evaluated. The primary objective is to determine whether underserved patients are willing to participate in and complete an online MBCR program, and the secondary objective is to determine whether online MBCR will mirror previous efficacy findings from F2F MBCR groups on patient-reported outcomes.

Kristin Zernicke, PhD, R. Psych

University of Calgary

Grantee

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