Parental Cancer-related Information Seeking, Health Communication and Satisfaction with Medical Providers of Childhood Cancer Survivors: Differences by Race/Ethnicity and Language Preference

Abstract

For childhood cancer survivors (CCS), parents play an important role in communicating with providers and conveying patient’s needs. This exploratory study examined the prevalence of cancer-related information-seeking among parents of CCS and investigated the association between parents’ race/ethnicity and language preference with health communication and satisfaction with child’s medical providers. One hundred and sixty CCS and their parents from two hospitals in Los Angeles County were recruited from the SEER registry. Multivariable logistic regression analyses assessed associations between parents’ race/ethnicity and language preference and their health communication with their child and with their child’s medical care providers. Among the parents, 29% were Spanish-speaking Hispanics, 27% English-speaking Hispanics, and 43% English-speaking non-Hispanics. Regardless of language preference, Hispanic parents were more likely than non-Hispanic parents to receive health information about their CCS’s cancer from hospital sources versus the internet. There was no difference by ethnicity/language in parent satisfaction with their CCS’s medical provider. Spanish-speaking Hispanic parents were more likely to report talking to their CCS about the need for cancer-related follow-up care compared to non-Hispanic English-speaking parents. These findings point to the potential importance of parents’ ethnicity and language for sources of health information and frequency of communication with their CCS about their cancer care.

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Whittier Foundation, grant R01MD007801 from the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities of the National Institutes of Health and P30CA014089 and T32CA009492 from the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health. The collection of cancer incidence data used in this study was supported by the California Department of Public Health pursuant to California Health and Safety Code Section 103885; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) National Program of Cancer Registries, under cooperative agreement 5NU58DP003862-04/DP003862; the National Cancer Institute’s Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results Program under contract HHSN261201000140C awarded to the Cancer Prevention Institute of California, contract HHSN261201000035C awarded to the University of Southern California, and contract HHSN261201000034C awarded to the Public Health Institute. USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center NIH P30CA014089. The ideas and opinions expressed herein are those of the author(s) and endorsement by the State of California Department of Public Health.

Compliance with Ethical Standards

All procedures performed in this study involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed consent Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

Conflict of interest The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.