Two of the most important determinants of cancer outcomes are the culture and behavior of both the provider and the patient, explained Moon S. Chen Jr, PhD, MPH, professor of hematology and oncology at UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center and principal investigator of The National Center for Reducing Asian American Cancer Health Disparities.
Two of the most important determinants of cancer outcomes are the culture and behavior of both the provider and the patient, explained Moon S. Chen Jr, PhD, MPH, professor of hematology and oncology at UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center and principal investigator of The National Center for Reducing Asian American Cancer Health Disparities.
Transcript (slightly modified)
How do population determinants of risk contribute to disparities in cancer outcomes?
That’s a very important question. By population determinants, I mean those major influencers that affect cancer outcomes. I believe that the 2 most important determinants are culture and behavior. Culture, another word for it might be norms, the traditions by which people have been brought up, and so those norms determine behaviors, and behaviors determine cancer outcomes.
We’ve got to look at it from 2 points of view. One is the provider, and secondly, the patient. From all the research we know that it is the provider who’s the most important influence on the care and quality of the patient’s care, so that if the provider took the initiative to aggressively seek the appropriate care for the individual, more than likely the patient’s going to follow through.
Now from the patient’s perspective, the culture and behavior. When the patient hears about what needs to be done, then it goes through the filter of culture and societal influences, and so I think that’s the extent to which it governs. I can give you some good examples of how both of those influences have worked.
Take for instance the norm of nonsmoking. Nonsmoking now is the norm, and all the societal influences including the environment and including the legislation and restrictions, all favor never smoking or nonsmoking. And so this is an example where an environmental influence can be the, shall we say, the culture that determines the behavior, which is not to smoke or to hopefully never start.
Another example might be, let’s say seatbelts. Seatbelt usage is another kind of a norm that has of course saved lives. So those are some examples of the population determinants.
Now, I focus on tobacco because tobacco is the single most important preventable cause of death, and so that I use as a case of what has worked. The tremendous declines in lung cancer rates are proof that it has worked.
Standard Criteria for Loss of Ambulation Needed in DMD
April 19th 2024A recent study suggests the differences between ambulation definitions for patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) can impact the identification of ambulant vs nonambulant individuals, and standard criteria across settings are needed.
Read More
The Importance of Examining and Preventing Atrial Fibrillation
August 29th 2023At this year’s American Society for Preventive Cardiology Congress on CVD Prevention, Emelia J. Benjamin, MD, ScM, delivered the Honorary Fellow Award Lecture, “The Imperative to Focus on the Prevention of Atrial Fibrillation,” as the recipient of this year’s Honorary Fellow of the American Society for Preventive Cardiology award.
Listen
An Overview of Health Care and Pharmaceutical Trends, 2023-2024
April 19th 2024Douglas M. Long, BA, MBA, was featured as the keynote speaker on the closing day of The Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy 2024 annual meeting, with a session dedicated to surveying the health care and pharmaceutical trends of the last year.
Read More
Promoting Equity in Public Health: Policy, Investment, and Community Engagement Solutions
June 28th 2022On this episode of Managed Care Cast, we speak with Georges C. Benjamin, MD, executive director of the American Public Health Association, on the core takeaways of his keynote session at AHIP 2022 on public health policy and other solutions to promote equitable health and well-being.
Listen
Collecting SDOH Data Can Assess Risk of Medical Nonadherence, Improve HEI and Star Ratings
April 18th 2024At the Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy (AMCP) 2024 annual meeting, a panel of presenters explored changes coming to Medicare that incorporate social determinants of health (SDOH) data to improve patient and health system outcomes.
Read More