Cancer Survivors in Saint Lucia Deeply Value Social Support: Considerations for Cancer Control in Under-Resourced Communities

Aviane Auguste, Shania Cox, JoAnn S. Oliver, Dorothy Phillip, Owen Gabriel, James St. Catherine, Carlene Radix, Danièle Luce and Christine Barul
Additional contact information
Aviane Auguste: Vaughan Arthur Lewis Institute for Research and Innovation (VALIRI), Sir Arthur Lewis Community College, Morne Fortune, Castries LC06 101, Saint Lucia
Shania Cox: Univ Rennes, Inserm, EHESP, IRSET (Institut de Recherche en Santé, Environnement et Travail)-UMR_S 1085, 97100 Pointe-à-Pitre, France
JoAnn S. Oliver: Capstone College of Nursing, The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL 35401, USA
Dorothy Phillip: Faces of Cancer Saint Lucia, Tapion Ridge, Castries LC04 201, Saint Lucia
Owen Gabriel: Department of Oncology, Owen King European Union Hospital, Millenium Highway, Castries LC04 201, Saint Lucia
James St. Catherine: Vaughan Arthur Lewis Institute for Research and Innovation (VALIRI), Sir Arthur Lewis Community College, Morne Fortune, Castries LC06 101, Saint Lucia
Carlene Radix: Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) Commission-Franck Johnson Avenue, Morne Fortune, Castries LC06 101, Saint Lucia
Danièle Luce: Univ Rennes, Inserm, EHESP, IRSET (Institut de Recherche en Santé, Environnement et Travail)-UMR_S 1085, 97100 Pointe-à-Pitre, France
Christine Barul: Univ Rennes, Inserm, EHESP, IRSET (Institut de Recherche en Santé, Environnement et Travail)-UMR_S 1085, 97100 Pointe-à-Pitre, France

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 11, 1-11

Abstract: Understanding the views of cancer survivors on their experience is important for informing community-based interventions. We studied, for the first time, the views of cancer survivors residing in Saint Lucia on their overall care experience. We used interview data from a cohort of adult cancer survivors from Saint Lucia between 2019 and 2020. We performed a thematic analysis to derive themes from codes. Forty-four survivors provided responses to at least one of the three questions. The majority of survivors were black, female and diagnosed with breast cancer. Survivors were interviewed on average five years after diagnosis. Four common themes emerged; “Availability of support groups”, “Importance of support from family and friends”, “Access to finances” and “Health education and patient navigation”. Travel overseas for health services was common among survivors. Survivors expressed emotional distress during travel due to isolation from family and local providers. This is typical among island populations and is distinct from existing patient frameworks. Survivors also suggested that networking amongst providers and interventions assisted families of cancer survivors. Although tertiary care services are limited, we showed that survivors deeply value and depend on their inter-personal relationships during care. Interventions aimed at strengthening the inter-personal environment of survivors are warranted.

Keywords: cancer; community health; health disparities; social support; small island developing state; low and middle-income countries; Caribbean; Saint Lucia (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/11/6531/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/11/6531/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:11:p:6531-:d:825657

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().