A Culturally Tailored Technology-Based Program on Isolation, Resources, Support Care Needs, and Uncertainty

Purpose: Technology-based programs are known to improve cancer patients’ survival rates, decrease racial/ethnic disparities in cancer survivorship, and decrease obstacles to survivorship care through supplying information and peer and professional support in racial/ethnic minorities. Moreover, marginalized groups including Asian Americans are reportedly more interested in technology-based interventions than those not marginalized. With few currently available technology-based programs for Asian American breast cancer survivors, researchers and health care providers have asserted the necessity of culturally tailored technology-based programs to support Asian American breast cancer survivors. The purpose of this study was to determine the preliminary efficacy of a culturally tailored technology-based program on isolation, resources, support care needs, and uncertainty among Asian American breast cancer survivors.

Methods: This pilot study used a randomized repeated measures pretest/posttest control group design. The participants included 94 Asian American breast cancer survivors. The data were collected using the Perceived Isolation Scale (PIS), the Personal Resource Questionnaire, the Support Care Needs Survey-34 Short Form, and the Mishel Uncertainty in Illness Scale-Community . The data analysis was performed using descriptive statistics and the repeated measures ANOVA.

Results: The findings indicated that there were significant changes in the isolation scores (F = 9.937, p < 0.01), the resource scores (F = 6.612, p < 0.05), the support care need scores (F = 8.299, p < 0.01), and the degree of uncertainty scores (F = 8.722, p < 0.01) of the intervention group from the pre-test to the post-test. The isolation scores decreased more in the intervention group (M = -0.43, SD = 0.79) than the control group (M = 0.11, SD = 0.20; F = 5.471, p < 0.05). The resource scores increased significantly in the intervention group (M = 0.53, SD = 0.59) while they significantly decreased in the control group (M = -0.11, SD = 0.68; F = 10.027, p < 0.01). The degree of uncertainty scores significantly decreased in the intervention group (M = -0.49, SD = 0.87) while they increased in the control group (M = 0.05, SD = 0.37; F = 4.455, p < 0.05).

Conclusions: The findings supported the efficacy of the culturally tailored technology-based program on isolation, resources, support care needs, and uncertainty among Asian American breast cancer survivors. For future research, the efficacy of the program needs to be further tested with a larger number of diverse groups of Asian breast cancer survivors across the globe.