Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Cancer
Date Submitted: Sep 6, 2018
Date Accepted: Sep 3, 2019
(closed for review but you can still tweet)
Evaluation of a technology-based survivor care plan for breast cancer survivors
ABSTRACT
Background:
As of 2016, almost sixteen million individuals were cancer survivors, including over 3.5 million survivors of breast cancer. Because cancer survivors are living longer and have unique health care needs, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) proposed a survivor care plan (SCP) as a way to alleviate the many medical, emotional, and care coordination problems of survivors.
Objective:
This pilot study of breast cancer survivors was undertaken to: 1) examine self-reported changes in knowledge, confidence, and activation from before to after receipt of a survivor care plan (SCP), and 2) describe survivor preferences for and satisfaction with a technology-based SCP.
Methods:
A single group pretest-posttest design was used to study breast cancer survivors in an academic (AC) and a community (CC) cancer center at the medical visit after chemotherapy completion. The intervention was a technology-based SCP. Measures were taken before, immediately after, and 1 month after receipt of the SCP.
Results:
38 breast cancer survivors agreed to participate in the study. Participants at both sites reported increases in knowledge, confidence, and activation from baseline to immediately after SCP and one month later. CC participants had lower knowledge, confidence, and activation at baseline compared with AC participants; scores improved at follow-up time points. Overall, 58% of participants chose the fully functional electronic SCP. However, 50% of the CC group chose the paper version compared with 27% of the AC group. Satisfaction with format and content of the SCP was high for both groups.
Conclusions:
This study provides evidence that knowledge, confidence, and activation of survivors were associated with implementation of the SCP. This research is in agreement with past research showing that cancer survivors found the technology-based SCP to be acceptable. More research is needed to determine the optimal approach to survivor care planning to ensure that all cancer survivors can benefit from it.
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