Abstract
Continuing to utilize healthcare as needed during an epidemic outbreak is significant, in general, and especially for cancer patients. Therefore, this study aimed to explore factors associated with health services utilization among breast cancer patients during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak. A cross-sectional online survey was conducted among 151 women with breast cancer. Participants completed measures of perceived health status, perceived susceptibility to COVID-19, anxiety, coping resources, health services utilization (contact with healthcare professionals and cancellation of an appointment to the oncology/hematology clinic), and socio-demographic questionnaires. A multiple hierarchical regression was calculated; contact with healthcare professionals was the dependent variable. In addition, a logistic regression was calculated; cancellation of an appointment to the oncology/hematology clinic because of the COVID-19 was the dependent variable. Breast cancer patients' contact with healthcare professionals was lower than their contact prior to the pandemic. A higher extent of contact with healthcare professionals was related to patients' perception of health as bad/reasonable, lower perceived susceptibility, a lower sense of mastery, and higher social support. In addition, the odds of cancelling an appointment to the oncology/hematology clinic were higher in the presence of additional chronic illnesses and a higher sense of mastery. The results could provide public health agencies with a more complete picture of the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic among breast cancer patients. This is significant because, in the event that COVID-19 re-emerges, the findings of the current study could help guide public health officials and possibly prevent the future avoidance of health services' use among this high-risk population.
Highlights
Israel and the rest of the world are currently experiencing an outbreak of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) (Guo et al, 2020)
We examined sense of mastery and social support, two coping resources that have consistently been found in the literature to be related to health services utilization (King et al, 2015; Gyasi et al, 2020)
About half of the participants reported being in isolation since the COVID-19 outbreak
Summary
Israel and the rest of the world are currently experiencing an outbreak of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) (Guo et al, 2020). Cumulative knowledge indicates that cancer patients are more susceptible to COVID-19 than individuals without cancer. This is due to these patients’ systemic immunosuppressive state, caused by the malignancy and anticancer treatments, such as chemotherapy or surgery (Liang et al, 2020; Porzio et al, 2020). These patients are likely at increased risk of COVID-19 and have a poorer general prognosis (Liang et al, 2020). More than 1.8 million new breast cancer cases are diagnosed every year worldwide (Tasnim et al, 2018)
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