Eating and Quality of Life in Older Adults with Cancer

超出提供的空间。这项申请是对NIA先导研究资助计划(PAR-03-056)的响应，主题8.老年人的癌症。这项研究的目的是调查在社区居住的癌症老年人、他们的照顾者和他们的医疗保健提供者中食物和饮食的社会和文化意义，以及这种意义对这些人之间存在的社会关系的发展、维持或侵蚀以及对他们的生活质量的影响。这是一项探索性研究，采用定性访谈，将解决三个具体问题：1)食物和饮食对社区癌症老年人、他们的照顾者和他们的医疗保健提供者意味着什么？2)疾病和疾病过程如何影响社区癌症老年人和他们的照顾者之间的关系(S)，因为它是通过食物和饮食来调节的？3)家人、朋友和邻居给予的工具性社会支持是如何的，通过为社区癌症老年人提供食物的形式得到的，该成年人和那些住在同一个家庭的人？将对两组居住在社区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进行深入的、半结构化的面对面访谈。第一组患者将是那些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，并对专题和关系内容进行系统编码。这个项目的意义在于它展示了如何在患有癌症的老年人中考虑到食物的社会和文化以及生理层面。这与老年癌症患者尤其相关，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，可用于开发旨在缓解与食物和进食有关的症状的干预措施。这项研究收集的数据将从患者及其照顾者的角度提供信息，这些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。表演网站========================================Section End===========================================

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===========================================