The Characteristics of Asian American Breast Cancer Survivors with Low Quality of Life: a Decision Tree Analysis

• Type of Material: Article
• Authors: Eun Im, Emory University; Jae-Seon Yi, Emory University; Wonshik Chee, Emory University
• Language: English
• Date: 2023-01-11
• Publisher: SPRINGER
• Publication Version: Final Published Version
• Copyright Statement: © The Author(s) under exclusive licence to American Association for Cancer Education 2023, Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
• Final Published Version (URL): http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s13187-022-02260-x
• Title of Journal or Parent Work: JOURNAL OF CANCER EDUCATION
• Start Page: 1
• End Page: 9
• Grant/Funding Information: This study was funded by the National Institutes (NIH/NCI; 1R01CA203719).
• Keywords: Asian American; VALIDITY; Life Sciences & Biomedicine; Survivors; Public, Environmental & Occupational Health; Social Sciences; Science & Technology; Education, Scientific Disciplines; Breast Cancer; Decision Tree; Oncology; OF-LIFE; Quality of Life; Education & Educational Research
• Research Categories: Health Sciences, Nursing; Health Sciences, Oncology

Abstract

To provide appropriate and adequate information and support for Asian American breast cancer survivors, it would be essential to identify risk groups among them to target in future cancer education interventions. In this secondary analysis, the characteristics of risk groups within Asian American breast cancer survivors who had low quality of life were identified using a decision tree analysis. For this analysis, only the pre-test data of 185 women from a parent study were selected. Multiple instruments including the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy Scale-Breast Cancer (FACT-B) were used in the parent study. The data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics and decision tree analyses. The decision tree analyses showed six combined characteristics associated with lower quality of life scores than the total mean quality of life scores. For instance, the women with lower quality of life scores (than the total mean quality of life scores) had high perceived barriers (cut point = 1.84), low self-efficacy for coping (cut point = 81.50), and high global symptom distress (cut point = 2.27). Also, the characteristics linked to the lowest quality life scores were different depending on the dimensions of the quality of life. The characteristics associated with the quality of life of Asian American breast cancer survivors need to be considered in future education programs for this specific population.