A community-engaged and patient-centered approach to understanding the implementation of posttreatment survivorship care planning for rural lung cancer survivors

Project: Research project

Project Details

Description

Illinois rural residents are more likely to have lung cancer and die sooner than those living in bigger cities. Unlike patients living in cites, patients from rural areas may have to travel farther to see a cancer doctor. Although there are better treatments to help people live longer after cancer, rural residents are still dying earlier. This has created differences in how long rural and urban cancer survivors' say alive. An important step to understanding why these differences exist is knowing how doctors are helping rural survivors make plans for future check-in visits to monitor new cancers. We found from other studies that when survivors understand their doctor's recommendations for future check-in visits, they are more likely to keep up with the visits. However, few studies have looked at how doctors are helping rural lung cancer survivors make plans for future check-in visits. Our study will first interview lung cancer survivors and caregivers that live in rural counties in northern Illinois about discussions they had with their doctor about check-in visits. Second, we will have focus groups with survivors and caregivers about the resources they needed to make following the doctor's recommendations easier. These two goals will provide information for a larger study to help survivors identify resources, like financial assistance programs, to help them keep up their regular recommendations for check-in visits. We hope both of these projects will help rural lung cancer survivors live longer.
StatusFinished
Effective start/end date7/1/206/30/22

Funding

  • Respiratory Health Association of Metropolitan Chicago (RHA2020-01)

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