Psychological distress in survivors of head/neck cancer

描述（由申请人提供）：本R21申请的总体目标是促进头颈癌生存率的研究。这将通过两个具体目标来实现：为头颈癌幸存者确定最合适和最具成本效益的对照组。2. 收集心理困扰的试点数据，用于未来的R01应用，以研究头颈癌的长期幸存者（诊断后5年及以上）。进行长期癌症生存研究的挑战之一是确定一个合适的对照组。这在头颈癌中尤其如此，因为这种疾病不成比例地影响来自较低社会经济阶层的年龄较大、种族多样的男性。为了实现我们的目标，我们将从肿瘤登记处招募100名长期幸存者参加关于心理困扰、生活质量和身体功能的电话访谈。将使用两个对照组。首先，作为访谈的一部分，幸存者将被要求找出2-3名性别、年龄、种族和工作状态相同的朋友，他们没有癌症病史，并且愿意参加类似的30分钟电话访谈。这是最有可能产生一个人口统计学上与幸存者组相似的对照组的方法。这种方法的缺点是，一些幸存者可能不愿意或无法确定愿意参与的朋友，而一些幸存者可能会提名几个朋友，这可能会使对照组产生偏见。使用随机数字拨号（RDD）方法，将从幸存者的人口普查区中抽取第二个对照组（n=100），并根据癌症幸存者组的性别，年龄和种族匹配频率。在目前的环境下，RDD看涨债券的收益率很低。此外，老年人可能对电话面试官持怀疑态度，因此尚不清楚这是否是招募合适对照组的最具成本效益的方法。将进行组间比较，以确定哪个控制组在性别、年龄、职业、社会经济地位和种族方面与幸存者组最匹配。这个项目的最终目标是为R01应用程序收集试验数据。数据将与基于人口的老年男性标准化指数标准以及适合该人群的特定疾病指数进行比较。规范数据、确定未来样本量要求的效应量以及对照组选择方法的成本效益将在这一未充分研究的人群中进行生存研究。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The overall aim of this R21 application is to facilitate the study of head and neck cancer survivorship. This will be accomplished via two specific aims: 1. Identify the most appropriate and cost-effective control group for head and neck cancer survivors. 2. Gather pilot data on psychological distress for a future R01 application to study long-term survivors (5-years and more beyond diagnosis) of head and neck cancer. Part of the challenge of conducting long-term cancer survivorship research is to identify an appropriate control group. This is especially true in head and neck cancer because the disease disproportionately affects older, ethnoracially diverse men who may be from a lower socioeconomic stratum. To achieve our aim we will recruit 100 long-term survivors from the tumor registry to participate in a telephone interview regarding psychological distress, quality of life, and physical function. Two control groups will be utilized. First, as part of the interview, survivors will be asked to identify 2-3 friends of the same sex, age, race, and work status, with no history of cancer, and who would be willing to take part in a similar 30-minute telephone interview. This is the most likely method to yield a control group that is demographically similar to the survivor group. The disadvantage of this approach is that some survivors may be unwilling or unable to identify friends who would participate and some survivors may nominate several friends, potentially biasing the control group. Using random digit dial (RDD) methodology, a second control group (n=100) will be drawn from the survivors' census tracts and frequency matched on sex, age, and race of the cancer survivor group. In the current atmosphere, the yield rate from RDD calls is low. Additionally, older individuals may be suspicious of telephone interviewers, thus it is unclear whether this is the most cost-effective methodology for recruiting an appropriate control group. Between-group comparisons will be conducted to determine which control group yields the best match with the survivor group on sex, age, occupation, socioeconomic status, and race. A final goal of this project will be to collect pilot data for an R01 application. Data will be compared to population-based norms for older men on standardized indices, as well as on illness-specific indices appropriate for this population. Normative data, effect sizes for determination of future sample size requirements, and cost-effectiveness of control group selection methodologies will be established for survivorship research in this understudied population.