School of Medicine and Public Health, University of Newcastle, Level 4, West, HMRI Building, Callaghan, NSW, 2308, Australia.
Hunter Medical Research Institute (HMRI), Newcastle, NSW, Australia.
Support Care Cancer. 2018 Jun;26(6):1967-1977. doi: 10.1007/s00520-017-4039-3. Epub 2018 Jan 8.
This study aimed to compare support persons of haematological cancer survivors living in rural and urban areas in regard to the type, prevalence and factors associated with reporting unmet needs.
One thousand and four (792 urban and 193 rural) support persons of adults diagnosed with haematological cancer were recruited from five Australian state population-based cancer registries. Participants completed the Support Person Unmet Needs Survey (SPUNS) that assessed the level of unmet needs experienced over the past month across six domains.
Overall, 66% of support persons had at least one 'moderate, high or very high' unmet need and 24% (n = 182) reported having multiple (i.e. 6 or more) 'high/very high' unmet needs in the past month. There were no significant differences between rural and urban support persons in the prevalence of multiple unmet needs or mean total unmet needs scores. There were however significant differences in the types of 'high/very high' unmet needs with support persons living in rural areas more likely to report finance-related unmet needs. Support persons who indicated they had difficulty paying bills had significantly higher odds of reporting multiple 'high/very high' unmet needs.
This is the first large, population-based study to compare the unmet needs of support persons of haematological cancer survivors living in rural and urban areas. Findings confirm previous evidence that supporting a person diagnosed with haematological cancer correlates with a high level of unmet needs and highlight the importance of developing systemic strategies for assisting support persons, especially in regard to making financial assistance and travel subsidies known and readily accessible to those living in rural areas.
本研究旨在比较居住在农村和城市地区的血液病癌症幸存者的支持者在报告未满足需求的类型、流行程度和相关因素方面的差异。
从澳大利亚五个州的人口癌症登记处招募了 1040 名（792 名城市和 193 名农村）成年血液病癌症诊断患者的支持者。参与者完成了支持者未满足需求调查（SPUNS），该调查评估了过去一个月内六个领域经历的未满足需求的程度。
总体而言，66%的支持者至少有一种“中度、高度或非常高”的未满足需求，24%（n=182）报告在过去一个月内有多种（即 6 种或以上）“高/非常高”的未满足需求。农村和城市支持者在多种未满足需求的流行率或平均总未满足需求评分方面没有显著差异。然而，在“高/非常高”未满足需求的类型方面存在显著差异，居住在农村地区的支持者更有可能报告与财务相关的未满足需求。表示难以支付账单的支持者报告多种“高/非常高”未满足需求的可能性显著更高。
这是第一项比较居住在农村和城市地区的血液病癌症幸存者的支持者的未满足需求的大型、基于人群的研究。研究结果证实了先前的证据，即支持被诊断患有血液病癌症的人会导致高度的未满足需求，并强调了制定系统策略以协助支持者的重要性，特别是在向居住在农村地区的人提供财务援助和旅行补贴方面。
