Abstract
Rural US Latina breast cancer patients experience language barriers, health literacy issues, and limited access to health care resources that negatively impact survivorship care. This study explored the challenges to survivorship care for rural Latina breast cancer (BC) patients and approaches to supporting survivorship care plans (SCP) from the stakeholders’ perspectives. Data were collected via eight focus groups (n = 40) and individual interviews (n = 4) with Latina BC patients, family caregivers, and health care professionals in a rural US-Mexico Border region. Interviews were audio-taped, transcribed, translated, and analyzed using thematic analysis. Themes related to the patient’s SCP challenges included: (1) lack of knowledge of treatment information, (2) lack of proactive health behavior, (3) gaps in information for care coordination, (4) psychological distress, and (5) difficulty retaining health information. Respondents expressed that the SCP document could fill patient information gaps as well as support patient communication with their clinicians and family. Rural BC patients demonstrated an acute need for information and active engagement in their survivorship care. The findings indicate the importance of addressing challenges for survivorship care on multiple dimensions: Cognitive, behavioral, social, and structural. Developing a culturally tailored SCP intervention will be imperative to support survivorship care.
Highlights
Breast cancer (BC) is the second most common cancer diagnosis followed by skin cancer among women in the United States [1]
The incidence of BC and mortality is lower among Latinas as compared to non-Hispanic
The analysis focused on identifying the nature and impact of different challenges to survivorship care among Latina BC survivors and on the potential usefulness and role of the survivorship care plans (SCP) document that could address these challenges
Summary
Breast cancer (BC) is the second most common cancer diagnosis followed by skin cancer among women in the United States [1]. There are currently over 3.8 million breast cancer survivors in the US [2]. Follow-up care for the detection of cancer recurrence, management of long-term effects, preventive screenings for additional malignancies, and other preventive care are extremely important to promote improved health outcomes and wellbeing of cancer survivors [3]. Racial/ethnic disparities in breast cancer are persistent. The incidence of BC and mortality is lower among Latinas as compared to non-Hispanic. White women and they have similar 5-year survival rates at 88.9 and 89.6 per 100,000, respectively [4]. From 2009–2018, the BC mortality rate decreased by 1.1% per year among
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