Relationships between pain characteristics and acculturation in Arab American patients with cancer

Abstract

Advances in cancer detection and therapy are extending the life expectancy of cancer patients. However, cancer pain continues to be a persistent, disturbing, and often incapacitating cancer symptom. Although cancer pain occurs in all populations, minorities are at greater risk for unrelieved pain. Pain in African American and Hispanic cancer patients has been evaluated, but no published data are available on the cancer pain experience of Arab Americans. Acculturation is an important predictor of many health-related behaviors, including pain experience and management. The purposes of this study are to: 1) describe the cancer pain experience (i.e., pain severity, pain interference with activities) of an outpatient sample of Arab American patients with cancer pain; 2) examine the relationships between two pain characteristics (i.e., intensity, interference) and demographic characteristics, 3) examine patient barriers to cancer pain management, and 4) evaluate the relationship between pain characteristics, patient barriers, and patients' level of acculturation. A convenience sample of 200 cancer patients will be recruited from outpatient waiting room of a large urban cancer center in southeastern Michigan. Participants will complete self-report questionnaires measuring their pain severity and pain interference (BPI), barriers to pain management (ABQ-II), acculturation levels (ASPAS), and demographic data. Descriptive statistics summarized as frequencies and percentages for categorical variables and means and standard deviations for continuous variables, will be used to describe the demographic and clinical characteristics of the patients. Pearson's product moment correlations will be used to determine the relationships between pain characteristics and demographic characteristics (i.e., age, education), and acculturation. Independent Student's t-tests will be used to evaluate gender differences in each of the study variables. Findings of this study will evaluate the status of Arab American cancer patients' pain, contribute to understanding the relationship between pain and acculturation in Arab American cancer patients and allow for cross-cultural comparisons.