Impact of internet‐based cancer survivorship care plans on health care and lifestyle behaviors

Abstract

BACKGROUND Survivorship care plans (SCP) are currently recommended by the Institute of Medicine, and will soon be required for accreditation by the American College of Surgeons Commission on Cancer. To the best of the authors' knowledge, the impact of SCPs on cancer survivors has not been previously reported. METHODS In 2007, the authors created an Internet tool for the creation of SCPs that provides customized guidelines for survivorship care. Users are sent a voluntary follow‐up survey 1 month after initial use. RESULTS From May 2010 through January 2013, 8690 cancer survivors used the SCP tool. The most common diagnoses were breast (45%), hematologic (12%), and gastrointestinal (11%) cancers; the median age of the survivors was 51 years. Of these, 875 (10%) respondents provided information for future electronic contact and 298 responded to a 1‐month follow‐up survey. They reported that the information provided was “good” to “excellent” in 93% of cases, and new in 65% of cases. With regard to the emotional impact of the SCP, 62% of responding survivors believed that it provided “just enough” information, 72% felt “more informed,” and 94% believed they would recommend it to others. The majority of respondents (63%) thought that the SCP changed their health care participation, and 80% shared/planned to share it with their health care team. Of those survivors who had done so, 80% reported that it improved communication with their health care providers. Greater than one‐half of survey users (54%) reported that they had made or planned to make a lifestyle change in response to the SCP, most commonly dietary modification and increased exercise. CONCLUSIONS Survivorship care plans are useful vehicles with which to promote lifestyle and behavioral changes, and to assist survivors with communication with health care providers. These findings support recommendations from the Institute of Medicine and the American College of Surgeons Commission on Cancer. Cancer 2013;119:3854–3860. © 2013 American Cancer Society.

Views of Family Physicians about Survivorship Care Plans to Provide Breast Cancer Follow-Up Care: Exploration of Results from a Randomized Controlled Trial

“…Several studies have focused on what scps should entail [8][9][10][11][12][13] , their rationale and strategies for their implementation 14,15 , or obstacles to their completion 10,[15][16][17][18][19][20] . Other studies have described the perspectives of patients about, and patient and health care provider support for or satisfaction with, scps [21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31] .…”

Assessment of the feasibility and acceptability, and pre-test of the utility of an individualized survivorship care plan (ISCP) for women with endometrial cancers during the transition of the end of active treatment to cancer survivorship

“…According to Sprague et al (2013), survivors are satisfied with the ISCP and find it to be useful and to facilitate an understanding of their diagnoses, treatments, follow-up, and the recommended health-promoting behaviour. Feeling informed would seem to help in planning changes in behaviour and foster responsibility for one's health (Hill-Kayser et al, 2013). Moreover, survivors report that it improves communication with the oncology team and other health professionals (Faul et al, 2012).…”

“…Several studies highlight that a majority of health professionals approve the concept, format, and structure of the ISCP (Faul et al, 2012;Forsythe et al, 2013) and believe in the importance of patients receiving information on the content provided in the ISCP (Faul et al, 2012;Salz et al, 2014). Moreover, the ISCP could improve both the coordination and the continuum of care (Faul et al, 2012;Forsythe et al, 2013), it would improve communication between health professionals (Faul et al, 2012;Forsythe et al, 2013;Hill-Kayser et al, 2013), and it would be useful for family doctors in monitoring symptoms and knowledge of follow-up (Curcio et al, 2012;Forsythe et al, 2013;Salz et al, 2014). However, although all participants found the end-of-care meeting with the ONN useful, three among them mentioned not having used the ISCP thereafter.…”

Évaluation de la faisabilité, de l’acceptabilité et pré-test de l’utilité d’un plan de soins de suivi (PSS) auprès de femmes atteintes du cancer de l’endomètre lors de la transition de la fin du traitement actif vers la survie au cancer

“…Plus particulièrement, le PSS facilite l'autogestion en incitant à poser des questions à l'équipe de soin lors des rencontres de suivi (Faul et al, 2012;Watson, Sugden et Rose, 2010), en sensibilisant à l'importance de l'adoption de comportements de santé après la fin du traitement et en précisant un plan d'action à mettre en oeuvre selon des directives précisées (McCorkle et al, 2011). L'autogestion de santé, ou empowerment, consiste en la capacité de gérer son état de santé, la possibilité de collaborer avec l'équipe de soins et l'accès à des soins de soutien de qualité (McCorkle et al, 2011) De plus, la mise en oeuvre d'un PSS pourrait permettre d'améliorer la coordination des soins et la communication entre les soignants à cette phase de la trajectoire de soins (Hewitt et al, 2006;Hill-Kayser et al, 2013;Jefford et al, 2011).…”

“…Selon Sprague et collè-gues (2013), les survivants sont satisfaits du PSS et trouvent qu'il est utile et facilite la compréhension du diagnostic, des traitements, du suivi à venir et des comportements de santé à adopter. Le sentiment d'être mieux informé aiderait à la planification de changement de comportement et favoriserait la prise en charge de sa santé (Hill-Kayser et al, 2013). De plus, les survivants rapportent qu'il améliore la communication avec les professionnels de la santé (oncologie et non oncologie) (Faul et al, 2012).…”