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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...

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Autores principales: Crowder, Sylvia L., Sauls, Rachel, Gudenkauf, Lisa M., James, Christy, Skinner, Amber, Reed, Damon R., Stern, Marilyn
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2023
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.
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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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