Abstract
Purpose
Adolescent and young adult (AYA) cancer survivors experience unique barriers that compromise receipt of survivorship care; therefore, development of innovative educational interventions to improve rates of AYA survivorship care is needed. The efficacy of text-messaging and peer navigation interventions was compared to standard-of-care survivorship educational materials to increase AYAs’ (1) late effects knowledge and (2) knowledge, attitudes, and self-efficacy towards seeking survivor-focused care.
Methods
This was a three-armed, prospective, randomized controlled trial with one control group and two intervention groups. The control group received current standard-of-care educational materials. One intervention group participated in a text-messaging program, and the second participated in a peer navigator program. Participants completed pre- and post-intervention questionnaires. Study outcome variables were quantified using Fisher exact tests, two-sample t tests, exact McNemar tests, conditional logistic regression models, and analysis of covariance.
Results
Seventy-one survivors completed the study (control n = 24; text-messaging n = 23; peer navigation n = 24). Late effects knowledge was high at baseline for all groups. The text-messaging group had increased survivorship care knowledge compared to the control group (p < 0.05); the peer navigation group had increased survivorship care self-efficacy compared to the control group; p < 0.05. Both intervention groups showed increased attitudes towards seeking survivor-focused care compared to the control group (text-messaging p < 0.05; peer navigation p < 0.05).
Conclusions
Each intervention demonstrated significant benefits compared to the control group.
Implications for Cancer Survivors
Given the preliminary effectiveness of both interventions, each can potentially be used in the future by AYA cancer survivors to educate and empower them to obtain needed survivorship care.
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Acknowledgments
The authors would like to acknowledge Andrew Shanholtzer and the organization Padres Contra El Cáncer for their contributions to this study.
Funding
This research was supported by the Administrative Supplement NOT-CA-10-026 from the National Cancer Institute (Recipient: Dr. Jacqueline Casillas; Judy Gasson PhD). Dr. Crespi was also supported by CA016042 from the National Cancer Institute.
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This study was approved by the UCLA Institutional Review Board (UCLA IRB#11-002228).
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Casillas, J.N., Schwartz, L.F., Crespi, C.M. et al. The use of mobile technology and peer navigation to promote adolescent and young adult (AYA) cancer survivorship care: results of a randomized controlled trial. J Cancer Surviv 13, 580–592 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11764-019-00777-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11764-019-00777-7