Caring for Alaska Native prostate cancer survivors in primary care: a survey of Alaska Tribal Health System providers.
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Little is known about the constraints of optimizing health care for prostate
cancer survivors in Alaska primary care. OBJECTIVE: To describe the experiences and
attitudes of primary care providers within the Alaska Tribal Health System (ATHS)
regarding the care of prostate cancer survivors. DESIGN: In late October 2011, we
emailed a 22-item electronic survey to 268 ATHS primary care providers regarding the
frequency of Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA) monitoring for a hypothetical prostate
cancer survivor; who should be responsible for the patient's life-long prostate cancer
surveillance; who should support the patient's emotional and medical needs as a survivor;
and providers' level of comfort addressing recurrence monitoring, erectile dysfunction,
urinary incontinence, androgen deprivation therapy, and emotional needs. We used simple
logistic regression to examine the association between provider characteristics and
their responses to the survivorship survey items. RESULTS: Of 221 individuals who
were successfully contacted, a total of 114 responded (52% response rate). Most ATHS
providers indicated they would order a PSA test every 12 months (69%) and believed
that, ideally, the hypothetical patient's primary care provider should be responsible
for his life-long prostate cancer surveillance (60%). Most providers reported feeling
either "moderately" or "very" comfortable addressing topics such as prostate cancer
recurrence (59%), erectile dysfunction (64%), urinary incontinence (63%), and emotional
needs (61%) with prostate cancer survivors. These results varied somewhat by provider
characteristics including female sex, years in practice, and the number of prostate
cancer survivors seen in their practice. CONCLUSIONS: These data suggest that most
primary care providers in Alaska are poised to assume the care of prostate cancer
survivors locally. However, we also found that large minorities of providers do not
feel confident in their ability to manage common issues in prostate cancer survivorship,
implying that continued access to specialists with more expert knowledge would be
beneficial.
Type
Journal articleSubject
Alaska Nativecancer survivorship
prostate cancer
Aged
Alaska
Continuity of Patient Care
Delivery of Health Care
Health Care Surveys
Humans
Logistic Models
Male
Middle Aged
Outcome Assessment (Health Care)
Pilot Projects
Population Groups
Primary Health Care
Program Evaluation
Prostatic Neoplasms
Risk Assessment
Surveys and Questionnaires
Survivors
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https://hdl.handle.net/10161/9379Published Version (Please cite this version)
10.3402/ijch.v73.23637Publication Info
Tilburt, Jon C; Kelley, Stacy; DeCourtney, Christine A; Humeniuk, Katherine M; Latini,
Jerilyn; & Kim, Simon P (2014). Caring for Alaska Native prostate cancer survivors in primary care: a survey of Alaska
Tribal Health System providers. Int J Circumpolar Health, 73. pp. 23637. 10.3402/ijch.v73.23637. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/9379.This is constructed from limited available data and may be imprecise. To cite this
article, please review & use the official citation provided by the journal.
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