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The Lived Experience of Young Adult Cancer Survivors after Treatment: A Qualitative Study
Objective: The purpose of this qualitative study was to compare the lived experiences among extended (one year or less post-treatment) and long-term (three years or more post-treatment) young adult (YA) cancer survivors (ages 18–39 years old). Methods: Two trained researchers conducted semi-structur...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
MDPI
2023
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10385438/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37513563 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/nu15143145 |
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author | Crowder, Sylvia L. Sauls, Rachel Gudenkauf, Lisa M. James, Christy Skinner, Amber Reed, Damon R. Stern, Marilyn |
author_facet | Crowder, Sylvia L. Sauls, Rachel Gudenkauf, Lisa M. James, Christy Skinner, Amber Reed, Damon R. Stern, Marilyn |
author_sort | Crowder, Sylvia L. |
collection | PubMed |
description | Objective: The purpose of this qualitative study was to compare the lived experiences among extended (one year or less post-treatment) and long-term (three years or more post-treatment) young adult (YA) cancer survivors (ages 18–39 years old). Methods: Two trained researchers conducted semi-structured interviews inquiring about the overall lived experience of N = 24 YA cancer survivors (n = 12 extended and n = 12 long-term). The same two researchers independently completed line-by-line coding and thematic content analysis. Results: Interviews lasted an average of 41 min and revealed common themes of symptoms, psychosocial concerns, coping, and changes in health behaviors (e.g., nutrition and physical activity). All participants discussed symptoms impairing their quality of life and affecting their fear of recurrence. Specific psychosocial concerns among extended survivors were appearance-related (e.g., hair loss, weight gain) whereas concerns among long-term survivors included job loss, fertility, and financial stress. Coping strategies described by extended survivors were often distraction-based (e.g., watching television to “escape”), while long-term survivors described more active coping strategies (e.g., yoga, meditation, and seeking support from family and friends). Most survivors reflected on limited physical activity or unhealthy eating during treatment; however, nearly all declared healthy eating and physical activity post-treatment to improve well-being. Conclusions: YA cancer survivors report differing symptoms, psychosocial concerns, and coping strategies across time since treatment. While survivors reported challenges with physical activity and nutrition during treatment, nearly all emphasized the importance of these health behaviors post-treatment. Thus, health behavior interventions could represent a preferred approach to address post-treatment challenges and improve quality of life for YA survivors. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-10385438 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2023 |
publisher | MDPI |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-103854382023-07-30 The Lived Experience of Young Adult Cancer Survivors after Treatment: A Qualitative Study Crowder, Sylvia L. Sauls, Rachel Gudenkauf, Lisa M. James, Christy Skinner, Amber Reed, Damon R. Stern, Marilyn Nutrients Article Objective: The purpose of this qualitative study was to compare the lived experiences among extended (one year or less post-treatment) and long-term (three years or more post-treatment) young adult (YA) cancer survivors (ages 18–39 years old). Methods: Two trained researchers conducted semi-structured interviews inquiring about the overall lived experience of N = 24 YA cancer survivors (n = 12 extended and n = 12 long-term). The same two researchers independently completed line-by-line coding and thematic content analysis. Results: Interviews lasted an average of 41 min and revealed common themes of symptoms, psychosocial concerns, coping, and changes in health behaviors (e.g., nutrition and physical activity). All participants discussed symptoms impairing their quality of life and affecting their fear of recurrence. Specific psychosocial concerns among extended survivors were appearance-related (e.g., hair loss, weight gain) whereas concerns among long-term survivors included job loss, fertility, and financial stress. Coping strategies described by extended survivors were often distraction-based (e.g., watching television to “escape”), while long-term survivors described more active coping strategies (e.g., yoga, meditation, and seeking support from family and friends). Most survivors reflected on limited physical activity or unhealthy eating during treatment; however, nearly all declared healthy eating and physical activity post-treatment to improve well-being. Conclusions: YA cancer survivors report differing symptoms, psychosocial concerns, and coping strategies across time since treatment. While survivors reported challenges with physical activity and nutrition during treatment, nearly all emphasized the importance of these health behaviors post-treatment. Thus, health behavior interventions could represent a preferred approach to address post-treatment challenges and improve quality of life for YA survivors. MDPI 2023-07-14 /pmc/articles/PMC10385438/ /pubmed/37513563 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/nu15143145 Text en © 2023 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
spellingShingle | Article Crowder, Sylvia L. Sauls, Rachel Gudenkauf, Lisa M. James, Christy Skinner, Amber Reed, Damon R. Stern, Marilyn The Lived Experience of Young Adult Cancer Survivors after Treatment: A Qualitative Study |
title | The Lived Experience of Young Adult Cancer Survivors after Treatment: A Qualitative Study |
title_full | The Lived Experience of Young Adult Cancer Survivors after Treatment: A Qualitative Study |
title_fullStr | The Lived Experience of Young Adult Cancer Survivors after Treatment: A Qualitative Study |
title_full_unstemmed | The Lived Experience of Young Adult Cancer Survivors after Treatment: A Qualitative Study |
title_short | The Lived Experience of Young Adult Cancer Survivors after Treatment: A Qualitative Study |
title_sort | lived experience of young adult cancer survivors after treatment: a qualitative study |
topic | Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10385438/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37513563 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/nu15143145 |
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