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Multimedia tablet-based education tailored for Chinese immigrant mothers was successful in short-term maternal behaviors changes related to diet and exercise.

Little is known about the cultural beliefs and quality of life (QOL) of US-born and foreign-born Chinese women with breast cancer. We conducted individual semistructured qualitative interviews to explore the meaning of QOL, identify beliefs about cancer, and make comparison between US-born and foreign-born survivors. Women in this study identified the stigma of breast cancer that exists in the Asian community. They also described interpersonal support as central to a good QOL. However, when describing QOL, foreign-born Chinese women referred to wealth more frequently, while US-born Chinese women indicated friendship more frequently. The study findings support the need for culturally appropriate interventions that take into consideration the cancer-related beliefs and QOL of breast cancer survivors in the Chinese community.

Background Having an Advance Directive (AD) can help to guide medical decision-making. Asian Americans (AA) are less likely than White Americans to complete an AD. This pilot study investigated the feasibility and efficacy of a church-based intervention to increase knowledge and behavior change related to AD among Chinese and Vietnamese Americans. Methods This study utilized a single group pre- and post-intervention design with 174 participants from 4 churches. Domain assessed: demographics; AD-related knowledge, beliefs, attitudes, and intentions; AD completion; and conversations with a healthcare proxy. Data were analyzed using chi-square and multiple logistic regression techniques. Results We observed significant increases in participants' AD-related knowledge, intentions, and a gain in supportive beliefs and attitudes about AD, resulting in 71.8% AD completion, and 25.0% having had a proxy conversation. Discussion Providing culturally-tailored intervention and step-by-step guidance can help to achieve significant changes in AD related knowledge and behavior in AA church goers.

Barriers to cancer pain management can contribute to the undertreatment of cancer pain. No studies have documented barriers to cancer pain management in Chinese American patients. The purposes of this study in a community sample of Chinese Americans were to: describe their perceived barriers to cancer pain management; examine the relationships between these barriers and patients' ratings of pain intensity, pain interference with function, mood disturbances, education, and acculturation level; and determine which factors predicted barriers to cancer pain management. Fifty Chinese Americans with cancer pain completed the following instruments: Brief Pain Inventory (BPI), Karnofsky Performance Status (KPS) scale, Barriers Questionnaire (BQ), Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), Suinn-Lew Asia Self-Identity Acculturation (SL-ASIA), and a demographic questionnaire. The mean total BQ score was in the moderate range. The individual barriers with the highest scores were tolerance to pain medicine, time intervals used for dosage of pain medicine, disease progression, and addiction. Significant correlations were found between the tolerance subscale and least pain (r= 0.380) and the religious fatalism subscale and average pain (r=0.282). These two subscales were positively correlated with anxiety and depression levels: (tolerance: r=0.282, r=0.284, respectively; religious fatalism: r=0.358, r=0.353, respectively). The tolerance subscale was positively correlated with pain interference (r=0.374). Approximately 21% of the variance in the total BQ score was explained by patients' education level, acculturation score, level of depression, and adequacy of pain treatment. Chinese American cancer patients need to be assessed for pain and perceived barriers to cancer pain management to optimize pain management.