A Qualitative Investigation of Cancer Survivorship Experiences Among Rural Hispanics

Abstract

Cancer survivorship experiences were explored among Hispanic men and women with cancer and family members of cancer survivors, recruited from two rural Washington communities in the Lower Yakima Valley. Five focus groups were conducted from February 2006-October 2007 with 31 women and 10 men. Disbelief, fear, sadness, strength, courage, faith, and hope were common reactions to diagnosis. Concerns about family/children, losing medical coupons, and feelings of depression/isolation were identified as challenges faced after diagnosis. Participants identified smoking and environmental exposures as causes of cancer, but many believed operating on tumors caused cancer to spread. Participants used conventional treatments, but identified herbal/natural remedies as cures. Most participants reported negative experiences with physicians, and believed their community would benefit from language-appropriate information regarding prevention and treatment. The importance of linking survivors through support groups was emphasized and information elicited from sessions has been used to organize survivor support groups in these two communities.

Understanding the Unique Experiences of Undocumented, Hispanic Women Who are Living in Poverty and Coping with Breast Cancer

“…This belief is defined as the inability to affect fate or prevent cancer and is often associated with a moral framework that cancer is a punishment from God. Additional culturally based factors include embarrassment, confusion about the role of preventive medicine, and limited proficiency of the English language (Austin, Ahmand, McNally, & Stewart, 2002;Livaudais et al, 2010). These culturally based factors may contribute to the higher incidence of late stage diagnosing and increased mortality rates among Hispanic women who have been diagnosed with breast cancer (Watlington, Byers, Mouchawar, Sauaia, & Ellis, 2007).…”

Design, development, and feasibility of a spanish-language cancer survivor support group

“…Codes were used to discern broad themes and patterns. Many of the themes that emerged in this study were previously identified in a robust study conducted, independently, in a similar target population and geographic region[16] offering an opportunity for replication and showing saturation had been reached for those themes. Therefore, although described below, percentages or frequencies are not reported for these themes[35, 36].…”

“…Although, for some topics (e.g., body image, exercise, spirituality and social support) the frequency of selection differed between men and women, the fact some of these topics were discussed during the qualitative assessment and there were some men who demonstrated an interest in these topics, the research team determined that topics meeting the above inclusion criteria should be incorporated into the program in an effort to evaluate the acceptability of the topics to both men and women, as well as, the potential willingness of each gender to discuss the topics that had previously been identified by both Latino men and women (from the same geographic region) as important to cancer survivorship[16]. …”

“…These cultural features were present in every session. Other culturally-relevant features that were addressed were the need to present content in simple terms as up to 70% of the region’s population had less than an 8 th grade education (40% less than 4 th grade education)[16]. …”

“…Among Latinos, patient-identified contributors to poor psychological well-being include: poor patient-physician communication[3, 13], secrecy and shame about cancer[14], concerns about body image and sexuality[3, 15], a concern for their family, a desire for health-related education, financial concerns, strong feelings of depression and isolation, and physical limitations due to cancer treatment[16]. Despite these previously identified needs of Latino cancer survivors, a small number of studies have translated these findings into a formalized and culturally-competent intervention program[13, 17].…”