Family-Focused Preventive Interventions With Cancer Cosurvivors: A Call to Action

Am J Public Health. 2016 Aug;106(8):1381-7. doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2016.303178. Epub 2016 May 19.

Abstract

Health promotion and preventive action in the context of public health interventions for highly prevalent, long-term conditions such as cancer are rarely geared toward the family as a whole. Yet family members, as cancer cosurvivors, must manage their own substantial stress and multiple caregiving responsibilities and often constitute a critical nexus between individual patients and clinicians. We drew on 2 examples of cancer cosurvivorship from 2 different health service contexts, the United States and Finland. A systemic approach in public health is needed to support family members who not only have to confront the meaning of long-term conditions such as cancer but also may have to manage concurrent social life challenges and stressors such as economic hardship.

MeSH terms

  • Adaptation, Psychological*
  • Caregivers / psychology
  • Child of Impaired Parents / psychology
  • Family / psychology*
  • Finland
  • Health Promotion / organization & administration*
  • Humans
  • Neoplasms / psychology*
  • Social Support
  • Socioeconomic Factors
  • Stress, Psychological / psychology*
  • United States