1. Predictors of Adherence and Treatment Delays among African American Women Recommended to Receive Breast Cancer Chemotherapy.
- Author
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Gallups SF, Connolly MC, Bender CM, and Rosenzweig MQ
- Subjects
- Adult, Black or African American statistics & numerical data, Age Factors, Aged, Breast Neoplasms psychology, Chemotherapy, Adjuvant, Female, Humans, Middle Aged, Prospective Studies, Sexual Partners, Social Support, Socioeconomic Factors, Black or African American psychology, Antineoplastic Agents administration & dosage, Breast Neoplasms drug therapy, Healthcare Disparities ethnology, Medication Adherence statistics & numerical data, Time-to-Treatment
- Abstract
Background: Recognition of potential explanations for nonadherence or treatment delays is crucial to improving survival, particularly among African American women, for whom there is limited research assessing patient factors that influence adherence to breast cancer chemotherapy., Objective: This study sought to examine the association of patient factors such as age, income, employment, and partner status with adherence (full dose/on time) to prescribed breast cancer adjuvant chemotherapy and delays in treatment among African American women., Methods: This observational, prospective study used baseline data from the Adherence, Communication, Treatment, and Support Intervention Study that included African American women with early stage breast cancer who were recommended to receive chemotherapy. Eleven baseline demographic variables measured by a sociodemographic questionnaire were analyzed against the outcome variables of 85% adherence to chemotherapy, dichotomized as yes or no, and chemotherapy treatment delays measured as number of days., Results: For the 121 African American women included in this study, only employment status and number of comorbidities were significant predictors for total treatment delays (incidence rate ratio [IRR] = 2.175 [p = .000]; IRR = 1.234 [p = .003]) in the adjusted models., Implications: Employment status and number of comorbidities are predictors of the ability to receive timely breast cancer chemotherapy among African American women. This knowledge allows identification of patients in need of tailored supportive care to encourage adherence and prevent treatment delays., (Copyright © 2018 Jacobs Institute of Women's Health. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)
- Published
- 2018
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