An Exploration of How Contextual Factors Influence the Hispanic Cancer Patients’ Attitudes Toward Internet Cancer Support Groups (ICSGS)

Details

• Personal Author:
  Chee W ; Guevara E ; Im E-O
• Description:
  Cancer accounts for 20% of deaths in Hispanics in the United States. Internet cancer support groups have been shown to be beneficial in helping patients with coping strategies. Hispanic participation in support groups is lacking. The purpose is to explore how contextual factors influence the Hispanic cancer patients' attitudes toward Internet cancer support groups through a secondary analysis of qualitative data from a larger study on cancer pain experience of patients in the United States. The feminist perspective forms the theoretical underpinnings for this study. A secondary analysis of the data collected from a larger study on cancer pain management was conducted. The study included both quantitative Internet survey and qualitative online forums. For this secondary analysis, online forum data among 15 Hispanic cancer patients were evaluated using a thematic analysis to explore common themes in their attitudes toward Internet cancer support groups. Also, the Internet survey data among the 15 participants were analyzed to describe their sociodemographic characteristics using descriptive statistics. The participants of the online forum were recruited among 105 Hispanic Internet survey participants of the larger study using a convenience sampling method, and the online forum data were collected using 10 discussion topics related to cancer pain experience. The Internet survey data analyzed in this study were collected using Internet survey questionnaire including sociodemographic questions and self-reported health/disease status. Three themes related to Hispanic cancer patients' attitudes toward ICSGs emerged from this preliminary on-going analysis. First, the cultural value of familism influenced cancer patients' attitudes toward ICSGs. Due to familism, the family often took the place of the formal support group among Hispanic cancer patients. Hispanic cancer patients tended to have negative attitudes toward ICSGs because the Internet requires non-face-to-face interactions. Second, many of the participants of the study were not able to participate in ICSGs due to the language barriers. Lastly, Hispanic traditional gender roles had an impact on Hispanic women's participation in ICSGs. The researcher should know the strengths and weaknesses of using the Internet method for support group structure among Hispanic cancer patients in order to further research with the Internet cancer support groups. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Computers Minority Health Neoplasms Occupational Health Race Factors Safety
• Keywords:
  Attitude Cancer Information Systems Minority Health Pain Tolerance Qualitative Analysis Racial Factors Sociological Factors
• ISSN:
  0190-535X
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Grant
• Genre:
  Abstract or Summary
• Place as Subject:
  OSHA Region 6 ; Texas
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Volume:
  34
• Issue:
  2
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20054101
• Citation:
  Oncol Nurs Forum 2007 Mar; 34(2):480
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2007
• Performing Organization:
  University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Start Date:
  20050701
• Source Full Name:
  Oncology Nursing Forum
• End Date:
  20270630
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:e7b5cbce38a5ef535ddfe1053457e7bd02c51787ef402924ffa681330e4fe5abfef96737c981743a6143c59f394c8b5bfd39a6d1f02d673661fc94db2c58a571
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/216735/cdc_216735_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 37.34 KB ]