Abstract
BackgroundMost efforts to advance cancer survivorship care have occurred in Western countries. There has been limited research towards gaining a comprehensive understanding of survivorship care provision in the Asia-Pacific region. This study aimed to establish the perceptions of responsibility, confidence, and frequency of survivorship care practices of oncology practitioners and examine their perspectives on factors that impede quality survivorship care.MethodsA cross-sectional survey of hospital-based oncology practitioners in 10 Asia-Pacific countries was undertaken between May 2015–October 2016. The participating countries included Australia, Hong Kong, China, Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Singapore, India, Myanmar, and The Philippines. The survey was administered using paper-based or online questionnaires via specialist cancer care settings, educational meetings, and professional organisations.ResultsIn total, 1501 oncology practitioners participated in the study. When comparing the subscales of responsibility perception, frequency and confidence, Australian practitioners had significantly higher ratings than practitioners in Hong Kong, Japan, Thailand, and Singapore (all p < 0.05). Surprisingly, practitioners working in Low- and Mid- Income Countries (LMICs) had higher levels of responsibility perception, confidence and frequencies of delivering survivorship care than those working in High-Income Countries (HICs) (p < 0.001), except for the responsibility perception of care coordination where no difference in scores was observed (p = 0.83). Physicians were more confident in delivering most of the survivorship care interventions compared to nurses and allied-health professionals. Perceived barriers to survivorship care were similar across the HICs and LMICs, with the most highly rated items for all practitioners being lack of time, dedicated educational resources for patients and family members, and evidence-based practice guidelines informing survivorship care.ConclusionsDifferent survivorship practices have been observed between HICs and LMICs, Australia and other countries and between the professional disciplines. Future service planning and research efforts should take these findings into account and overcome barriers identified in this study.
Highlights
Most efforts to advance cancer survivorship care have occurred in Western countries
Different survivorship practices have been observed between High-Income Countries (HICs) and Low- and Mid- Income Countries (LMIC), Australia and other countries and between the professional disciplines
Future service planning and research efforts should take these findings into account and overcome barriers identified in this study
Summary
Most efforts to advance cancer survivorship care have occurred in Western countries. There has been limited research towards gaining a comprehensive understanding of survivorship care provision in the Asia-Pacific region. The proportion of people over 65 years of age in this region is likely to double from the current 7% by 2030 [13]. This growth has significant implications for cancer services in the region across all phases of the cancer trajectory. The IOM report further stipulated that quality survivorship care requires a coordinated approach by multidisciplinary practitioners including but not limited to physicians, nurses, psychologists, and social workers [3]. The STEP study (n = 1873) demonstrated that cancer survivors in the Asia Pacific region has significant symptom burden and unmet supportive care needs [10]
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