United states acculturation and cancer patients' end-of-life care.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Culture shapes how people understand illness and death, but few studies examine whether acculturation influences patients' end-of-life treatment preferences and medical care.

Methods and findings

In this multi-site, prospective, longitudinal cohort study of terminally-ill cancer patients and their caregivers (n = 171 dyads), trained interviewers administered the United States Acculturation Scale (USAS). The USAS is a 19-item scale developed to assess the degree of "Americanization" in first generation or non-US born caregivers of terminally-ill cancer patients. We evaluated the internal consistency, concurrent, criterion, and content validity of the USAS. We also examined whether caregivers' USAS scores predicted patients' communication, treatment preferences, and

SUBMITTER: Wright AA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3594172 | biostudies-literature | 2013

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature