Risk Groups by the Needs for Help: Asian American Breast Cancer Survivors.

Abstract

To supply proper and sufficient information and coaching through cancer education, it is important to decide who are risk groups among a target population. A decision tree analysis could help decide the characteristics of the risk groups. This study aimed to identify the combined characteristics of Asian American breast cancer survivors that were closely linked to high needs for help during their breast cancer survivorship process. The data on the needs for help among 185 Asian American breast cancer survivors from a parent clinical trial were included in this analysis. The instruments included the Supportive Care Needs Survey-Short Form 34 (SCNS-SF34) and multiple scales to measure the factors influencing the women's needs for help. The data were analyzed using latent profile analyses and decision tree analyses. The characteristics of the group with the highest needs for help were different depending on the types of needs. For instance, the group with the highest patient care/support needs for help score had high global symptom distress scores (cut point = 2.25) and high physical symptom distress (cut point = 1.57) and did not have regular access to health care (mean = 95.00; node 10). The findings suggest several risk groups to target in future interventions for cancer education to reduce the needs for help among this specific population. Multiple factors that could influence the needs for help among Asian American breast cancer survivors need to be considered in future intervention development for cancer education.