WOMENS CANCER TREATMENT CHOICES BY COHORT AND ETHNICITY

描述：拟议的定性人类学的目标 研究的目的是描述和研究使用 非传统和/或生物医学癌症治疗的80名妇女， 在加州的旧金山弗朗西斯科临床诊断的乳腺癌。 的 研究人群将包括两个年龄组的女性（35-49岁和 60-74）代表三个种族群体：欧洲裔美国人，非洲人， 美国人和华裔美国人。 这项研究将调查社会和 行为因素在癌症治疗选择中发挥作用， 重点是生命阶段的比较和探索性的方法， 种族的影响。 本研究有三个具体目标：（1） 确定区分非常规癌症治疗的因素 研究人群中的使用者和非使用者;（2）探索和分析 选择特定治疗方法的原因（生物医学 或非传统的）或治疗（生物医学和 （3）确定不同的配置， 治疗组合和冲突方法的方式 和解 数据将通过一系列的四个深入的半结构化 采访了最近被诊断出患有乳腺癌的女性。 的 将通过快速案件调查确定潜在的告密者 北方加州癌症中心的服务。 告密者将 在诊断后大约两个月内进行了初步访谈， 在6个月、18个月和30个月时再进行三次。 数据 将采用定性内容技术进行分析 分析. The Ethnograph人种志，a social社会science科学computer计算机software软件program程序， 将用于方便管理、排序、编码、分析 基于文本的定性数据。

DESCRIPTION: The objective of the proposed qualitative anthropological study is to describe and examine the reasons for the use of unconventional and/or biomedical cancer treatments among 80 women with clinically-diagnosed breast cancer in San Francisco, California. The study population will consist of two age cohorts of women (35-49 and 60-74) representing three ethnic groups: European American, African American, and Chinese American. This study will investigate social and behavioral factors that play a role in cancer treatment choices, with a focus on life-stage comparisons and an exploratory approach to the influence of ethnicity. The study has three specific aims: (1) to determine the factors that distinguish unconventional cancer treatment users from non-users in the study population; (2) to explore and analyze the reasons for the selection of specific treatments (either biomedical or unconventional) or combinations of treatments (both biomedical and unconventional); and (3) to determine the different configurations of treatment combinations and the manner in which conflicting methods are reconciled. Data will be collected through a series of four in depth semistructured interviews with women recently diagnosed with breast cancer. The potential informants will be identified through a rapid case-finding service of the Northern California Cancer Center. Informants will be interviewed initially within approximately two months of diagnosis and three more times at 6 months, 18 months, and 30 months. The data analysis will be undertaken using techniques of qualitative content analysis. The Ethnograph, a social science computer software program, will be used to facilitate the management, sorting, coding, analysis of the text-based qualitative data.