Healthcare Professionals' Views of Supportive Care Needs for Chinese, Korean, and Vietnamese Americans with Metastatic Cancer.

The supportive care needs of people with metastatic cancer, particularly Asian Americans, are understudied. Distinct psychosocial support needs may exist across ethnocultural groups with Confucian-heritage values and norms. Cultural factors may shape how adults approach their oncologic care.

Supportive Care Needs in Chinese, Vietnamese, and Korean Americans With Metastatic Cancer: Mixed Methods Protocol for the DAWN Study.

Background: Asian Americans with metastatic cancer are an understudied population. The Describing Asian American Well-Being and Needs in Cancer (DAWN) Study was designed to understand the supportive care needs of Chinese-, Vietnamese-, and Korean-descent (CVK) patients with metastatic cancer.

Objective: This study aims to present the DAWN Study protocol involving a primarily qualitative, convergent, mixed methods study from multiple perspectives (patients or survivors, caregivers, and health care professionals).

A Culturally Sensitive Social Support Intervention for Chinese American Breast Cancer Survivors (Joy Luck Academy): Protocol for a Randomized Controlled Trial.

Background: Breast cancer is the most prevalent type of cancer among Asian American women. Chinese American immigrant breast cancer survivors face unique challenges because of cultural and socioecological factors. They report emotional distress and the need for social, emotional, and spiritual support.

Community Tele-pal: A community-developed, culturally based palliative care tele-consult randomized controlled trial for African American and White Rural southern elders with a life-limiting illness.

Background: Patients living in rural areas experience a variety of unmet needs that result in healthcare disparities. The triple threat of rural geography, racial inequities, and older age hinders access to high-quality palliative care (PC) for a significant proportion of Americans. Rural patients with life-limiting illness are at risk of not receiving appropriate palliative care due to a limited specialty workforce, long distances to treatment centers, and limited PC clinical expertise.

Perceptions of Family Among Low-Income Patients With Diabetes in a Text-Based Mobile Health Intervention.

Background: Diabetes disproportionately affects the US Latino population, due to socioeconomic pressures, genetics, reduced access to care and cultural practices. While efforts to improve self-care through interventions incorporating family are highly rated by Latinos, family can be both supportive and obstructive. To develop effective interventions, this role needs clarification.

Results of a lay health education intervention to increase colorectal cancer screening among Filipino Americans: A cluster randomized controlled trial.

Background: Filipino colorectal cancer (CRC) screening rates fall below Healthy People 2020 goals. In this study, the authors explore whether a lay health educator (LHE) approach can increase CRC screening among Filipino Americans ages 50 to 75 years in Hawai'i.

Methods: A cluster randomized controlled trial from 2012 through 2015 compared an intervention, which consisted of LHEs delivering 2 education sessions and 2 telephone follow-up calls on CRC screening plus a CRC brochure versus an attention control, in which 2 lectures and 2 follow-up calls on nutrition and physical activity plus a CRC brochure were provided.

Colorectal cancer beliefs, knowledge, and screening among Filipino, Hmong, and Korean Americans.

Background: To the authors' knowledge, there are few studies to date regarding colorectal cancer (CRC) beliefs, knowledge, and screening among multiple Asian American populations, who are reported to have lower CRC screening rates compared with white individuals. The current study was performed to assess knowledge and beliefs regarding the causes of CRC, its prevention, and factors associated with CRC screening among 3 Asian American groups.

Methods: The authors conducted an in-language survey with Filipino (Honolulu, Hawaii), Hmong (Sacramento, California), and Korean (Los Angeles, California) Americans aged 50 to 75 years who were sampled through social networks.

Culture and Palliative Care: Preferences, Communication, Meaning, and Mutual Decision Making.

Palliative care is gaining acceptance across the world. However, even when palliative care resources exist, both the delivery and distribution of services too often are neither equitably nor acceptably provided to diverse population groups. The goal of this study was to illustrate tensions in the delivery of palliative care for diverse patient populations to help clinicians to improve care for all.

Using Mobile Health to Improve Social Support for Low-Income Latino Patients with Diabetes: A Mixed-Methods Analysis of the Feasibility Trial of TExT-MED + FANS.

Background: Social support interventions can improve diabetes self-care, particularly for Latinos, but are time and resource intensive. Mobile health may overcome these barriers by engaging and training supporters remotely.

Methods: We conducted a randomized controlled feasibility trial of emergency department patients with diabetes to determine the feasibility of enrolling patients and supporters, acceptability of the intervention, and preliminary efficacy results to power a larger trial.

Lay health educators and print materials for the promotion of colorectal cancer screening among Korean Americans: A randomized comparative effectiveness study.

Background: Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the second most commonly diagnosed cancer among Korean American men and women. Although CRC screening is effective in reducing the burden of this disease, studies have shown that Korean Americans have low screening rates.

Methods: The authors conducted a 2-arm cluster randomized controlled trial comparing a brochure (print) with a brochure and lay health educator (LHE) outreach (print + LHE) in increasing CRC screening rates among Korean American individuals.

Lay health educators increase colorectal cancer screening among Hmong Americans: A cluster randomized controlled trial.

Background: Asian Americans have lower colorectal cancer (CRC) screening rates than non-Hispanic white individuals. Hmong Americans have limited socioeconomic resources and literacy. The current randomized controlled trial was conducted to determine whether bilingual/bicultural lay health educator (LHE) education could increase CRC screening among Hmong Americans.

Culture: The missing link in health research.

Culture is essential for humans to exist. Yet surprisingly little attention has been paid to identifying how culture works or developing standards to guide the application of this concept in health research. This paper describes a multidisciplinary effort to find consensus on essential elements of a definition of culture to guide researchers in studying how cultural processes influence health and health behaviors.

Cancer statistics for Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders, 2016: Converging incidence in males and females.

Cancer is the leading cause of death among Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders (AANHPIs). In this report, the American Cancer Society presents AANHPI cancer incidence data from the National Cancer Institute, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the North American Association of Central Cancer Registries and mortality data from the National Center for Health Statistics. Among AANHPIs in 2016, there will be an estimated 57,740 new cancer cases and 16,910 cancer deaths.

Stigma and On-line Health Information Seeking of U.S. South Asian Cancer Survivors.

The internet has replaced physicians as primary health information source for cancer-survivors.It is important to uncover barriers/facilitators to cancer information seeking, particularly on-line.Asian Americans are the fastest growing U.

Community collaborative for colorectal cancer screening in Los Angeles Koreatown.

Colorectal cancer (CRC) rates are high among Korean Americans due in large part to low rates of screening. The Asian American Network for Cancer Awareness, Research, and Training (AANCART) developed the Korean CRC Project to increase awareness of and access to CRC screening for Los Angeles County Korean Americans.

Asian American women in California: a pooled analysis of predictors for breast and cervical cancer screening.

Objectives: We examined patterns of cervical and breast cancer screening among Asian American women in California and assessed their screening trends over time.

Methods: We pooled weighted data from 5 cycles of the California Health Interview Survey (2001, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2009) to examine breast and cervical cancer screening trends and predictors among 6 Asian nationalities. We calculated descriptive statistics, bivariate associations, multivariate logistic regressions, predictive margins, and 95% confidence intervals.

Defining novel health-related quality of life domains in lung transplantation: a qualitative analysis.

Purpose: Health-related quality of life (HRQL) domains vary across disease conditions and are determined by standards, values, and priorities internal to patients. Although the clinical goals of lung transplantation are to improve patient survival and HRQL, what defines HRQL in lung transplantation is unknown. Employing a qualitative approach, we aimed to identify HRQL domains important in lung transplantation.

The association of duration of residence in the United States with cardiovascular disease risk factors among South Asian immigrants.

South Asians are disproportionately impacted by cardiovascular disease (CVD). Our objective was to examine the association between duration of residence in the US and CVD risk factors among South Asian adult immigrants. Multivariate logistic regression analyses using pooled data from the 2005, 2007, 2009 California Health Interview Surveys.

The association of religiosity with overweight/obese body mass index among Asian Indian immigrants in California.

Objective: The aim of this study was to examine the association between religiosity and overweight or obese body mass index among a multi-religious group of Asian Indian immigrants residing in California.

Methods: We examined cross-sectional survey data obtained from in-language telephone interviews with 3228 mostly immigrant Asian Indians in the 2004 California Asian Indian Tobacco Survey using multivariate logistic regression.

Results: High self-identified religiosity was significantly associated with higher BMI after adjusting for socio-demographic and acculturation measures.

The Minority Training Program in Cancer Control Research: impact and outcome over 12 years.

The Minority Training Program in Cancer Control Research (MTPCCR) encourages underrepresented master's level students and professionals in the social, behavioral, and public health sciences to pursue doctoral training and careers in cancer disparities research. This paper reports new data on the program outcome after 12 years. A web-based survey was sent to all 462 program alumni.

Belief in divine control, coping, and race/ethnicity among older women with breast cancer.

Background: Belief in divine control is often assumed to be fatalistic. However, the assumption has rarely been investigated in racial/ethnic minorities.

Objectives: This study aims to examine the association between belief in divine control and coping and how the association was moderated by ethnicity/acculturation in a multi-ethnic sample of breast cancer patients.

Enhancing life after cancer in diverse communities.

Background: Although large numbers of cancer survivors exist in every community, including minority communities, there is a significant gap in knowledge about best practices for these patients.

Methods: The Community Networks Program, funded by the National Cancer Institute Center to Reduce Cancer Health Disparities, has developed and tested unique services for these communities. These programs have used community-based participatory research techniques under a framework of diffusion of innovation and communications theory.

Cancer patient navigator tasks across the cancer care continuum.

Cancer patient navigation (PN) programs have been shown to increase access to and utilization of cancer care for poor and underserved individuals. Despite mounting evidence of its value, cancer patient navigation is not universally understood or provided. We describe five PN programs and the range of tasks their navigators provide across the cancer care continuum (education and outreach, screening, diagnosis and staging, treatment, survivorship, and end-of-life).

Applying the concept of culture to reduce health disparities through health behavior research.

Culture is often cited as an underlying cause of the undue burden of disease borne by communities of color along the entire life cycle. However, culture is rarely defined or appropriately measured. Scientifically, culture is a complex, integrated, and dynamic conceptual framework that is incongruent with the way it is operationalized in health behavior theories: as a unidimensional, static, and immutable character element of a homogeneous population group.