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Difficulties in Accessing Cancer Care in a Small Island State: A Community-Based Pilot Study of Cancer Survivors in Saint Lucia
Developing robust systems for cancer care delivery is essential to reduce the high cancer mortality in small island developing states (SIDS). Indigenous data are scarce, but community-based cancer research can inform care in SIDS where formal research capacity is lacking, and we describe the experie...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
MDPI
2021
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8124473/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33947123 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18094770 |
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author | Auguste, Aviane Jones, Glenn Phillip, Dorothy St. Catherine, James Dos Santos, Elizabeth Gabriel, Owen Radix, Carlene |
author_facet | Auguste, Aviane Jones, Glenn Phillip, Dorothy St. Catherine, James Dos Santos, Elizabeth Gabriel, Owen Radix, Carlene |
author_sort | Auguste, Aviane |
collection | PubMed |
description | Developing robust systems for cancer care delivery is essential to reduce the high cancer mortality in small island developing states (SIDS). Indigenous data are scarce, but community-based cancer research can inform care in SIDS where formal research capacity is lacking, and we describe the experiences of cancer survivors in Saint Lucia in accessing health services. Purposive and snowball sampling was used to constitute a sample of survivors for interviews. Subjects were interviewed with a questionnaire regarding socio-demographics, clinical characteristics, health services accessed (physicians, tests, treatment), and personal appraisal of experience. We recruited 50 survivors (13 men, 37 women). Only 52% of first presentations were with general practitioners. The mean turnaround for biopsy results in Saint Lucia was three times longer than overseas (p = 0.0013). Approximately half of survivors commenced treatment more than one month following diagnosis (median of 32 days, IQR 19–86 days), and 56% of survivors traveled out-of-country for treatment. Most survivors (60%) paid for care with family/friends support, followed by savings and medical insurance (38% each). In conclusion, cancer survivors in Saint Lucia are faced with complex circumstances, including access-to-care and health consequences. This study can guide future research, and possibly guide practice improvements in the near term. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-8124473 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2021 |
publisher | MDPI |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-81244732021-05-17 Difficulties in Accessing Cancer Care in a Small Island State: A Community-Based Pilot Study of Cancer Survivors in Saint Lucia Auguste, Aviane Jones, Glenn Phillip, Dorothy St. Catherine, James Dos Santos, Elizabeth Gabriel, Owen Radix, Carlene Int J Environ Res Public Health Article Developing robust systems for cancer care delivery is essential to reduce the high cancer mortality in small island developing states (SIDS). Indigenous data are scarce, but community-based cancer research can inform care in SIDS where formal research capacity is lacking, and we describe the experiences of cancer survivors in Saint Lucia in accessing health services. Purposive and snowball sampling was used to constitute a sample of survivors for interviews. Subjects were interviewed with a questionnaire regarding socio-demographics, clinical characteristics, health services accessed (physicians, tests, treatment), and personal appraisal of experience. We recruited 50 survivors (13 men, 37 women). Only 52% of first presentations were with general practitioners. The mean turnaround for biopsy results in Saint Lucia was three times longer than overseas (p = 0.0013). Approximately half of survivors commenced treatment more than one month following diagnosis (median of 32 days, IQR 19–86 days), and 56% of survivors traveled out-of-country for treatment. Most survivors (60%) paid for care with family/friends support, followed by savings and medical insurance (38% each). In conclusion, cancer survivors in Saint Lucia are faced with complex circumstances, including access-to-care and health consequences. This study can guide future research, and possibly guide practice improvements in the near term. MDPI 2021-04-29 /pmc/articles/PMC8124473/ /pubmed/33947123 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18094770 Text en © 2021 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 Auguste, Aviane Jones, Glenn Phillip, Dorothy St. Catherine, James Dos Santos, Elizabeth Gabriel, Owen Radix, Carlene Difficulties in Accessing Cancer Care in a Small Island State: A Community-Based Pilot Study of Cancer Survivors in Saint Lucia |
title | Difficulties in Accessing Cancer Care in a Small Island State: A Community-Based Pilot Study of Cancer Survivors in Saint Lucia |
title_full | Difficulties in Accessing Cancer Care in a Small Island State: A Community-Based Pilot Study of Cancer Survivors in Saint Lucia |
title_fullStr | Difficulties in Accessing Cancer Care in a Small Island State: A Community-Based Pilot Study of Cancer Survivors in Saint Lucia |
title_full_unstemmed | Difficulties in Accessing Cancer Care in a Small Island State: A Community-Based Pilot Study of Cancer Survivors in Saint Lucia |
title_short | Difficulties in Accessing Cancer Care in a Small Island State: A Community-Based Pilot Study of Cancer Survivors in Saint Lucia |
title_sort | difficulties in accessing cancer care in a small island state: a community-based pilot study of cancer survivors in saint lucia |
topic | Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8124473/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33947123 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18094770 |
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