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Cancer survivorship experiences in Utah: an evaluation assessing indicators of survivors’ quality of life, health behaviors, and access to health services

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Abstract

Purpose

The 2016–2020 Utah Comprehensive Cancer Prevention and Control Plan prioritized strategies to address cancer survivorship experiences. In this paper we present estimates for nine indicators evaluating these priorities, trends over time, and assess disparities in survivorship experiences across demographic subgroups.

Methods

We surveyed a representative sample of Utah cancer survivors diagnosed between 2012 and 2019 with any reportable cancer diagnosis. We calculated weighted percentages and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for each indicator. We assessed change over time using a test for trend across survey years in a logistic regression model and used Rao-Scott F-adjusted chi-square tests to test the association between demographic characteristics and each survivorship indicator.

Results

Most of the 1,793 respondents (93.5%) reported their pain was under control, 85.7% rated their overall health as good, very good, or excellent, but 46.5% experienced physical, mental, or emotional limitations. Only 1.7% of survivors aged 75 or older were current smokers, compared to 5.8% of 65–74-year-olds and 7.9% of survivors aged 55–74 (p < 0.006). No regular physical activity was reported by 20.6% and varied by survivor age and education level. The proportion who received a survivorship care plan increased from 34.6% in 2018 to 43.0% in 2021 (p = 0.025). However, survivors under age 55 were significantly less likely to receive a care plan than older survivors.

Conclusion

This representative survey of cancer survivors fills a gap in understanding of the cancer survivorship experience in Utah. Results can be used to evaluate and plan additional interventions to improve survivorship quality of life.

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Data availability

The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are not publicly available due to privacy restrictions.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Kate Hak and Lori Burke of the Utah Cancer Registry for their efforts to recruit participants and collect data for this study.

Funding

This work was supported by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Program of Cancer Registries, Cooperative Agreement No. NU58DP006320. The Utah Cancer Registry is also supported by the U.S. National Cancer Institute’s SEER Program, Contract No. HHSN261201800016I, with additional support from the University of Utah and Huntsman Cancer Foundation. This work was also supported in part by the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number UL1TR002538.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Utah Cancer Registry, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA

    Morgan M. Millar, Kimberly A. Herget, Rachel R. Codden, Sandra L. Edwards, Marjorie E. Carter & Carol Sweeney

  2. Division of Epidemiology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA

    Morgan M. Millar, Blessing Ofori-Atta, Rachel R. Codden & Carol Sweeney

  3. Huntsman Cancer Institute, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA

    Morgan M. Millar, Anne C. Kirchhoff & Carol Sweeney

  4. Utah Department of Health and Human Services, Utah Cancer Control Program, Salt Lake City, UT, USA

    Brad Belnap

  5. Department of Pediatrics, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA

    Anne C. Kirchhoff

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  1. Morgan M. Millar
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. SE and MC oversaw material preparation and data collection. Analyses were performed by BOA, KH, and RC. The first draft of the manuscript was written by MM. CS, AK, and RC assisted in substantive revisions to the drafted manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Morgan M. Millar.

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Competing interests

The authors have no relevant financial or non-financial interests to disclose.

Ethical approval

This study was reviewed by the Utah Department of Health Institutional Review Board, which deemed the project exempt from human subjects’ research approval because it was a program evaluation initiative.

Consent to participate

Informed consent was obtained from all participants included in this study.

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Not applicable. This manuscript does not present individual data.

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Millar, M.M., Herget, K.A., Ofori-Atta, B. et al. Cancer survivorship experiences in Utah: an evaluation assessing indicators of survivors’ quality of life, health behaviors, and access to health services. Cancer Causes Control 34, 337–347 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10552-023-01671-5

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