Correlates of Supportive Care Needs among Asian Americans with
Colorectal, Liver, and Lung Cancer from a Web-Based Patient Navigation
Portal Intervention: The Patient COUNTS Study
Abstract
Background Cancer is the leading cause of death among Asian
Americans, who face barriers to cancer care. Cancer supportive care
needs among Asian Americans remain understudied. Methods We
recruited 47 Asian American adults with colorectal, liver, or lung
cancer who spoke Chinese, English, or Vietnamese, and were starting or
undergoing cancer treatment. We assessed cancer supportive care needs in
four domains: cancer information, daily living, behavioral health, and
language assistance. Hierarchical cluster analysis was used to identify
clusters of participants based on their need profiles to further examine
the association between need profiles and quality of life (QoL) assessed
by the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy (FACT-G).
Results Participants (mean age=57.6) included 72% males and
62% spoke English less than very well. Older participants (age
>65) and those with annual income <$50K reported
higher daily living needs. Men and younger participants (age
<50) reported higher behavioral health needs. We found 3
clusters displaying distinct cancer supportive need profiles: Cluster 1
(28% of the sample) displayed high needs across all domains; Cluster 2
(51%) had low overall needs; and Cluster 3 (21%) had high needs for
cancer information and daily living. Cluster 1 participants reported
lowest QoL. Conclusions Cancer supportive care needs among
Asian American patients with colorectal, liver and lung cancer were
associated with patient characteristics and QoL. Understanding cancer
supportive care needs will inform future interventions to improve care
and QoL for Asian American cancer patients.