The purpose of this project is to find ways to provide practical interventions in improving the quality of life of older cancer patients from convergent perspective with muti-disciplinary team of research experts from fields of social science, medici ...
The purpose of this project is to find ways to provide practical interventions in improving the quality of life of older cancer patients from convergent perspective with muti-disciplinary team of research experts from fields of social science, medicine, and statistics. To do so, the project longitudinally examined the medical and psycho-social aspects of their quality of life. Also, the experiences of the older patients, their family caregivers, and the health care providers are explored with both quantitative and qualitative research methods. The penal data of the quality of life of older cancer patients started at the first year and continued till the 3rd year. The panel study was done each 6 months which produced 5-wave panel data starting with 600 participants (457 at wave 2, 410 at wave 3, 386 at wave 4, and 342 at wave 5). This means 100% achievement of the goal to establish a ”panel data of the quality of life of older cancer patients“. Along with the panel study, the in-depth studies with 14 patients were conducted at the first year, with 8 caregivers at the second year, and 15 health care providers (7 medical doctors and 8 nurses) at the third year. The quantitative studies are conducted in the second year for 271 family caregivers of 373 older cancer patients of the panel data(except for 82 patients without caregivers), and for 480 health care providers (274 medical doctors and 206 nurses) at the third year. Based on the research results, the team recognized the strong needs for an intervention program for the improvement of their quality of life and the relieve of the depression. Therefore the team provided a convergent intervention program “Mind-Body-Spirit” which was not included in the original plan. The team published articles including one article in KCI journal Korean Journal of Social Welfare, two articles in KCI journal Journal of the Korea Gerontological Society, and one article published online early view of SSCI journal Geriatrics & Gerontology International. Seven articles are under review for SSCI journals with one article for KCI journal. The team also made thirteen presentations on academic conferences. The team accomplished all four responsibilities of presenting research results which is required by NRF, actively participated in the NRF Hubcon meetings, hosted one international forum and three national forums, and provided eight exchange education lectures. Also, the team provided workshops for older cancer patients and their family caregivers, hosted a workshop for field practitioners, provided three lectures for public, and promoted the research results via media. And finally, based on the findings of this project, the team continued and expanded the research to step-2 project after this step-1 project. As of now, the team is developing the index of quality of life of older cancer patients, a guidebook of care at home for the older cancer patients and their family caregivers, and developing various intervention programs.