Assistant Professor Christabel Cheung and colleagues at the U.S. Army Medical Command in Honolulu, Hawai'i and University of Southern California have a new paper published in Journal of Psychosocial Oncology entitled, “Capturing the financial hardship of cancer in military adolescent and young adult patients: A conceptual framework.”
Abstract:
Objective: Examine whether an existing conceptual framework for understanding financial hardship following a cancer diagnosis captures experiences among military adolescent and young adult (AYA) patients.
Methodological approach: Investigators conducted focus groups and key informant interviews (n=24) with active-duty military AYA cancer patients, their spouses, cancer care providers, and commanders at a Tripler Army Medical Center and Schofield Barracks in Honolulu, Hawai'i.
Findings: Content analysis and thematic abstraction revealed that military AYA cancer patients’ experiences of financial hardship occur within material, psychosocial, and behavioral domains that are situated within the contextual influences of AYA development and military culture. Subsequently, investigators constructed an expanded conceptual framework for understanding the financial hardship of cancer to capture these contexts.
Conclusion: Differentiating experiences of financial hardship into material, psychosocial, and behavioral domains situated within life course development and occupational culture contexts, may inform development of interventions with aspects of financial hardship most impacted by cancer care.
Citation:
Cheung, C. K., Nishimoto, P.W., Katerere-Virima, T., Helbling, L. E., Thomas, B. N., & Tucker-Seeley, R. (2021). Capturing the financial hardship of cancer in military adolescent and young adult patients: A conceptual framework. Journal of Psychosocial Oncology. https://doi.org/10.1080/07347332.2021.1937771