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FAMILY MEMBERS AND THE SURVIVORSHIP PHASE OF CANCER
Bowman, Karen
1R03CA091577-1
The proposed research will investigate family members and the survivorship phase of cancer, which is defined as that period five or more years from survivors' active cancer treatment. More specifically, the study will explore how family members are affected by and affect survivors' cancer experiences. This will be accomplished by examining the relationships among characteristics (personal, life cycle stage, family functioning, and stressors), meaning of the cancer experience, health beliefs and values, health activities, and adaptation for family members and survivors. The study will also examine the congruence of reports by family members and survivors about their cancer experiences the research calls for a two-year, cross-sectional descriptive pilot study of 140 family members of older (60+) White and African American survivors who were treated for breast, prostate, or colorectal cancer 5-20 years previously. In- person interviews will be conducted with family members designated by older survivors as the individuals who are most knowledgeable about their cancer experiences. In order to accomplish its specific aims, the proposed study will merge and match this interview data with data being collected as part of a five year NCI funded study of 360 older-adult, long-term cancer survivors, thus creating a survivor/family member dyad data set. The survivor study currently being conducted by the Principle Investigator's mentor, Dr. Gray Deimling is entitled the " Quality of Life After Cancer" (QOL-AC). It derives its sampling frame from the tumor registry at the Ireland Cancer Center of University Hospitals Health- System of Cleveland. The proposed study will merge ads match data obtained from mainly members with that concurrently collected from older survivors during wave three of the QOL-AC study. This data will be used to investigate the associations among key constructs delineated in the primary conceptual model that includes both family member and older survivor variables. These issues will be explored within the context of a conceptual model rooted in the family developmental framework that highlights the importance of life cycle factors, meaning, and beliefs and values on adjustment to cancer. It will also make it possible to explore the congruence of reports by family member/survivor dyads on key measure of their perceptions of the cancer experience as specified in the second conceptual model. The proposed research will incorporate a multi-method approach to measure the core constructs of the conceptual models by combining quantitative measures having sound psychometric properties with qualitative measures designed to asses the experimental aspects of cancer survivorship. A major focus of the multi-method approach will be to modify measures that are typically used with cancer patients and survivors around diagnosis and treatment so they are appropriate to use with family members in the survivorship phase of the disease.
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