Introduction: Health literacy, ie the ability to seek, understand and use health information, is essential for cancer survivors if they are to effectively manage their own long-term health needs. Lower levels of health literacy have been shown to impact negatively on health outcomes. The Barwon South Western Survivorship service was established to support survivors to develop knowledge and understanding for the sequelae of their cancer treatment, available support services and resources and the importance of adopting healthy lifestyle behaviours long term.
Objectives/Aims: To design, implement and evaluate a unique and innovative model of survivorship cancer care with adaptability for application to rural and regional Victoria.
Description/Methodology: Cancer survivors within two years of completing curative treatment from nine tumour streams received the nurse-led service. A survivorship plan was developed with the patient during two consultations with the survivorship nurse. The survivorship nurse communicated with the participant’s GP and gained sign-off of the survivorship care plan from the lead cancer specialist. The Health Literacy Questionnaire (HLQ) was completed by the participants at three time points - prior to the survivorship intervention, one week and three months post intervention. Baseline demographic information was collected.
Results: The sample of 99 participants had an average age of 59 years (range 21-84 years) and comprised more female participants (56%). A significant change in the mean scores was observed in healthcare provider support (p=0.025); having sufficient information (p =0.002); critical appraisal (p = 0.001), and navigating the healthcare system (p=0.04); improvement in actively engaging with healthcare providers, approached significance (p=0.09).
Conclusions: This project has led to the design and implementation of a survivorship service that has proved advantageous to participants. The provision of information using a systematic approach demonstrated improved health literacy levels, which may influence survivors’ long-term health outcomes following completion of cancer treatment.