Seriously sick people need social support to maintain their quality of life. Social support may be given by peers, who have experienced the same.
In this study voluntary participants with recently diagnosed breast cancer were randomly allocated to intervention (N=130) or control (N=130) group. The intervention group received, in addition to usual care, peer support via telephone 1-5 times according to their own preference. The control group received usual care only. Peer support was given by volunteered breast cancer survivors who were educated for giving peer support.