Understanding Cancer Immunotherapy Education Effectiveness Across Patient Subpopulations

• In Event: Medical Sociology Section Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (90 minute): Table 24. Health Knowledge, Behaviors, and Practices

Abstract

Background. Health literacy is a social determinant of health that mediates disparities in health outcomes through impacting access, understanding, and use of health information to make health-related decisions. Cancer health literacy, a subset of health literacy, focuses on navigating health information about cancer-specific treatments. One rapidly evolving cancer treatment area, immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) therapy or cancer immunotherapy, interrupts immune signaling pathways to enable T-cells to detect and kill cancer cells. Our research questions are: What impact did an education session have on knowledge uptake about cancer immunotherapy among patient subpopulations? How can we refine the education session to improve its efficacy for patient subpopulations?
Data Sources. From July 2020 to September 2021, we invited all cancer patients receiving immunotherapy to participate in a one-on-one patient education session and pre-test/post-test surveys. The patient education session included an oral presentation following National Comprehensive Cancer Network guidelines, video on immunotherapy mechanisms of action, and review of written materials and alert cards. Surveys assessed patient knowledge of immunotherapies' mechanisms of action, adverse effects and their management, and health literacy. Survey data were paired with patient demographic characteristics abstracted from electronic health record data.
Conclusion. Patients’ overall knowledge about cancer immunotherapy significantly increased after the education session compared to before the education session; differences in overall knowledge were apparent by insurance status and race. Understanding side effects of immunotherapy and “itis” as inflammation also improved after the education session compared to before the education session; differences in knowledge uptake were apparent by race, gender, insurance, and employment.
Implications for Nursing Practice. Nurse educators can address knowledge gaps that remain after the education session related to immunotherapies' mechanisms of action and adverse effects and their management (e.g., develop videos using analogies for inflammation and steroids). Nurse educators can also develop strategies to engage subpopulations with lower knowledge uptake after the education session (e.g., Black, Medicaid, and unemployed subpopulations).

Authors

• Stephanie Marie Teixeira-Poit, North Carolina A&T State University

• Katelin Sawicki, Cone Health Cancer Center at Wesley Long

• Wendy O’Kelley, Cone Health Cancer Center at Wesley Long

• Myrtle Hardin, Cone Health Cancer Center at Wesley Long

• Marjorie Jenkins, Moses H. Cone Memorial Hospital

• Vinay Gudena, Cone Health Cancer Center at Wesley Long