Eating and Quality of Life in Older Adults with Cancer

超出所提供的空间。本申请是为了响应NIA试点研究资助计划（PAR-03-056），主题8。老年癌症。本研究的目的是调查居住在社区的老年癌症患者、他们的照顾者和他们的保健提供者的饮食的社会和文化意义，以及这种意义对这些个体之间存在的社会关系的发展、维持或侵蚀的影响，以及对他们生活质量的影响。这是一项使用定性访谈的探索性研究，将解决三个具体问题：1)食物和饮食对社区居住的患有癌症的老年人、他们的照顾者和他们的医疗保健提供者代表什么？2)在食物和饮食介导下，疾病和疾病过程如何影响社区老年癌症患者与其照顾者之间的关系？3)家庭、朋友和邻居以提供食物的形式给予的工具性社会支持是如何得到的，这些形式是为居住在社区的患有癌症的老年人提供的，该老年人和居住在同一家庭的老年人所接受的？将对两组居住在社区的老年癌症患者、他们的照顾者和他们的医疗保健提供者进行深入的、半结构化的面对面访谈。第一批患者将是那些正在积极接受抗肿瘤治疗的患者。第二组将是不再接受抗肿瘤治疗的晚期癌症患者。将使用最新版本的NUD*IST软件N6对访谈进行审查和系统编码，以确定主题和相关内容。这个项目的意义在于它展示了如何在老年癌症患者中考虑到食物的社会和文化以及生理层面。这在老年癌症患者中尤其重要，因为与食物和饮食有关的问题可能会变得特别成问题。这项研究将提供初步的试点数据，可用于制定旨在减轻与食物和饮食有关的症状的干预措施。从本研究中收集的数据将从患者及其护理人员的角度提供信息，可用于设计涉及行为干预的随机临床试验，使卫生保健提供者能够更好地为老年癌症患者服务。网站性能 ======================================== 节结束 ===========================================

EXCEED THE SPACE PROVIDED. This application is in response to the NIA Pilot Research Grant Program (PAR-03-056), Topic 8. Cancer in the Elderly. The purpose of this study is to investigate the social and cultural significance of food and eating in community-dwelling older adults with cancer, their caregivers, and their health-care providers, and the affect that this significance has on the development, maintenance, or erosion of the social relationships existing between these individuals and on their quality of life. This is an exploratory study using qualitative interviews that will address three specific questions: 1) What do food and eating represent to community- dwelling older adults with cancer, their caregivers, and their health-care providers? 2) How do the illness and disease process affect the relationship(s) between community-dwelling older adults with cancer and their caregivers as it is mediated by food and eating? 3) How is the instrumental social support given by family, friends, and neighbors, in the form of providing food for the community-dwelling older adult with cancer received by that adult and those living in the same household? In-depth, semi-structured face-to-face interviews will be conducted with two groups of community-dwelling older adults with cancer, their caregivers, and their healthcare providers. The first group of patients will be those who are actively undergoing anti-tumor treatment. The second group will be terminally ill cancer patients who are no longer undergoing anti-tumor therapies. Interviews will be reviewed and systematically coded for thematic and relational content using N6, the latest version of the NUD*IST software. The significance of this project lies in its demonstration of how the social and cultural, as well as the physiological dimensions of food must be taken into account in older adults with cancer. This is particularly relevant in older patients with cancer where matters related to food and eating may become especially problematic. This study will provide preliminary pilot data that can be used to develop interventions aimed at the alleviation of symptoms associated with food and eating. Data gathered from this study will provide information from the perspective of the patients and their caregivers that can be used to design randomized clinical trials involving behavioral interventions that will enable health care providers to better serve older cancer patients. PERFORMANCE SITE ========================================Section End===========================================