Abstract
Context: Latino cancer patients experience disparities in access to and quality of palliative care. Objectives: This literature review addressed three aims: 1) to summarize existing palliative care interventions that aim to improve the quality of life for Latino cancer patients; 2) to evaluate the health care decision-making between providers and Latino cancer patients/family members who received palliative care, and 3) to describe culturally sensitive palliative care interventions for Latino cancer patients in the United States. Methods: We conducted a literature review using multiple electronic databases (PubMed and the University of Texas Medical Branch database) to identify potentially relevant empirical research published from (month) 2017 through March 2022. Peer-reviewed, empirical studies that implemented a palliative care intervention with a focus on the quality of life, health care decision-making, cultural sensitivity, and patient experiences with the palliative care intervention were reviewed. Studies included participants from pediatric to adult populations and other minority populations (with the inclusion of Latino and Hispanic participants) in their sample. Articles and palliative care interventions had to have taken place in the United States and had to be written in English. Any other language or different location were not included. Results: Of the twenty-two articles that satisfied eligibility criteria, only eleven articles focused on Latino cancer patients. Approximately half of the included? studies involved the quality of life, health care decision-making, and cultural sensitivity in their interventions. Sixteen articles incorporated cultural sensitivity throughout palliative care intervention development. Interventions that aimed to provide culturally sensitive palliative care made generalizations (culture differences within different countries' representation, language, education level, and gender) that were not applicable to all Latino and Hispanic groups. Discussion: Few empirical studies focused on palliative care interventions for Latino cancer patients. Many interventions for Latino and Hispanic cancer patients lack cultural sensitivity. Results suggest that interventions currently used are moderately acceptable; Future interventions should consider cultural sensitivity, avoid generalizations among Latino cancer patients, and improve the engagement of health care decisions between the clinical team and patient/family members. As palliative care intervention is personalized for each patient, the medical team should keep an account in understanding the patient background to construct a culturally competent treatment and engagement with patients and their caregivers/community in order to provide a better quality of life.
Citation Format: Carlos J. Orellana Garcia, Julia Stal, Cara Pennel. Palliative care interventions for Latino cancer patients: A review of the literature between 2017-2022 [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 15th AACR Conference on the Science of Cancer Health Disparities in Racial/Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved; 2022 Sep 16-19; Philadelphia, PA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2022;31(1 Suppl):Abstract nr A029.
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