Quantifying the psychosocial impact of a weekend retreat on adolescent and young adult (AYA) oncology patients

Abstract

Objective

This study aimed to determine if AYA oncology patients experienced a quantifiable improvement in psychosocial outcomes after attending a weekend retreat with their peers.

Methods

AYA oncology patients attended a weekend retreat. They completed the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy – General (FACT-G) before, 1 month after, and 6 months after the weekend retreat. Controls were age-matched oncology patients who did not attend the retreat.

Findings

Retreat participants’ scores did not significantly change over time; however, retreat participants’ scores at 1-month follow-up were significantly higher than control group scores.

Conclusions

AYA oncology patients may experience transient improvement in psychological well-being after attending a retreat, but benefits may not be durable. Work remains needed to examine the impact of retreat attendance on specific aspects of psychosocial well-being.

Implications for psychosocial oncology:

• Work is needed to decrease perceived attendance barriers for AYA oncology patients who have a low quality of life.

• Future retreat planners may consider modifying retreat activities and consider alternative retreat locations that appeal to campers with limited mobility, chronic pain, and/or other quality of life limitations.

• Additional study is needed to determine whether brief overnight or weekend retreats can be as effective as week-long camps in enhancing oncology patients’ quality of life.

• Future researchers should compare changes in weekend retreat attendees’ quality of life to changes in quality of life for a control group (e.g., via a waitlist control study design).

Keywords:

• Adolescent/young adult
• behavioral health
• quality of life
• quantitative
• survivorship

Disclosure statement

The authors have no conflicts of interest or financial benefit related to this research.