Health practices and behaviors of childhood cancer survivors not attending a comprehensive survivor clinic.

Abstract

10063 Background: Little is known regarding the health practices and behaviors of childhood cancer patients who have not received recommended survivorship care, a group that represents the majority of survivors. Methods: Using the Yale Tumor Registry, consisting of patients from Southern Connecticut, we identified patients who were diagnosed from 2000-2011 with an invasive cancer at age ≤18 years, are currently alive and cancer-free at least one year after therapy, live within 100 miles of Yale HEROS Childhood Cancer Survivor Clinic, never previously attended a survivor clinic, and consented to a research study to investigate survivor care. Participants completed postal or on-line surveys regarding health communication preferences, utilization of services, and behaviors. Results: The 68 participants had a mean age of 16.8 (range 6-27) years at evaluation and 6.7 years since diagnosis with 53% female and 50% currently >18 years. Overall, 100% had seen a primary care physician and 71% their pediatric oncologist in the past year. Forty-six percent had also seen a subspecialist with orthopedics (10%), dermatology (9%), endocrinology (6%), and OB/GYN (6%) as the most common specialties; 16% reported two or more subspecialists. Most (83%) had commercial insurance, while 17% had federal insurance. For communication preferences with their providers, willingness to communicate by cell phone, text messages, and email were 59%, 56%, and 87%, respectively. For health behaviors, only 16% of participants met CDC guidelines for fruit and 19.1% for vegetable intake. Among adults, 12% were active smokers. Only 6% of children and 33% of adults met age-specific CDC recommendations for moderate weekly physical activity. Conclusions: Survivors of childhood cancer were overall highly connected to primary care and other health services, despite not participating in survivorship care. However, inadequate diet and physical activity results suggest patients could benefit from behavioral interventions.