NWT RESEARCH DATABASE

Regions: Inuvialuit Settlement Region, Gwich'in Settlement Area, Sahtu Settlement Area, Dehcho Region, North Slave Region, South Slave Region, Qikiqtaaluk Region

Tags: health promotion, cancer, women's health

Objective(s): To evaluate the co-design and implementation (uptake, sense of support, behaviour change, satisfaction) of a health support program for women recovering from breast, ovarian, cervical or colorectal cancer treatment in NWT.

Project Description: This licence has been issued for the scientific research application No. 5802. The overall aim of this present study is to evaluate the co-design (stage 1) and implementation (stage 2; uptake, sense of support, behaviour change, satisfaction) of a health support program for women recovering from breast, ovarian, cervical or colorectal cancer treatment in NWT. Specific objectives: 1. Co-design the text message service with members of the community, to assure cultural appropriateness and relevance and to implement text message service to support women after cancer, 2. Evaluating the potential reach and scalability of the programs as well as seek user feedback regarding usefulness and engagement and suggestions for improvement. 3. Determine fidelity of message delivery (completion, message responses, dropouts). EMPOWER-NWT will follow a 2-stage mixed methods design that includes quantitative and qualitative methods. Stage 1 involves focus groups with key members of the NWT community, including cancer survivors, Indigenous Elders and community members and health professionals involved in cancer care to determine the design of the health and wellness program (e.g. message content and themes, program length, message frequency per week) and draft text messages. Focus groups will be conducted via video conference, last approximately 2-hours and will be led by an experienced interviewer. A minimum of two focus groups will be conducted, with additional focus groups conducted until no new topics or conversation themes emerge (thematic saturation). After the focus group, participants will complete a brief (10minute) survey rating draft text messages for clarity, usefulness and appropriateness for cancer survivors and cultural significance. Low-rated messages will be deleted from the final program. Researchers program remaining messages into an automated text message delivery system, ready for stage 2 (see study protocol for further details). Stage 2 involves evaluating if the text message program works within the current cancer care system in the NWT and if participants like the program. Between 100-250 cancer survivors will be recruited via email lists, cancer networks and social media. Women will be eligible if they are (i) an adult (=18 years), (ii) have completed active breast, ovarian, cervical or colorectal cancer treatment (surgery and/or chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy) within the last 10 years and (iii) if they own a mobile phone with a Canadian number. Patients will be excluded if they are: (i) already participating in a text message-based study; (ii) insufficient in English skills to read and understand the Patient Information Sheet and provide informed consent; (iii) diagnosed with distant metastatic cancer (iv) unable to comply with study requirements. After electronic consent, participants will fill in some basic information about themselves (e.g. age, cancer diagnosis, time since treatment), automatically receive the program for approximately [# months decided in Stage 1] months and at the end, receive a text message with a link to a short (5-minute) online feedback survey, which explores what they liked most and least about the program and how it can be improved. The whole program, including online surveys and text message delivery, occur remotely. The study results will be provided to NWT stakeholders and community organizations via a 1-page written summary via cancer networks or direct email and traditional and social media advertising (text and videos). The Stage 1 summaries will focus on the co-design process and the type of program that resulted and stage 2 summaries will focus on participants’ feedback about the program. The fieldwork for this study will be conducted from: January 01 - December 31, 2024