Grant: Summer Program in Aging

The majority of new cancer diagnoses and cancer-related deaths occur in older people. Almost one third of Canada's ageing population are born outside of Canada. Older people can experience challenges with communication and making treatment-related decisions due to health conditions, such as hearing difficulty or memory loss. For older immigrants, communication and decision-making ability are further challenged by language and cultural barriers. Good communication and shared decision-making can help people with cancer live longer and better. In this doctoral research project, I will examine the factors, processes, and conditions that enable or prevent shared decision-making among older immigrants with their cancer care providers, and create tools to help overcome the identified barriers. I will be working with a patient partner co-lead throughout this project. The project will be divided into three parts. I will first begin by exploring published studies on shared decision-making with culturally and linguistically diverse older people with cancer through a scoping review of the published literature. In the second part of the project, I will conduct interviews with older immigrants living with cancer, their caregivers, and cancer care providers to learn about their experience with shared decision-making as it relates to cancer treatments. For the third part of the project, I will work with patients and caregivers, community groups, and health care providers to develop tools to help older immigrants better take part in shared decision-making with their cancer care. By improving cancer treatment-related shared decision-making with this group of older adults, it will reduce the negative outcomes and differences in cancer care that can occur as a result of poor communication and lack of involvement of patients and their caregivers.