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The utilization of allied and community health services by cancer patients living in regional and remote geographical areas in Australia

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Abstract

Introduction

Cancer patients in Australia’s Northern Territory (NT) face unique challenges to accessing cancer-related community and allied health services (referred here as ‘health services’). This is in part due to the NT’s unique geographic, socioeconomic and demographic profile. This paper describes the use of health services by cancer patients in the NT.

Methods

Adult cancer patients attending appointments at a cancer centre in Darwin, NT and who were diagnosed within the past five years were invited to participate in face-to-face interviews about their use of allied and community health services. A descriptive analysis of health services utilization was conducted.

Results

Of the 76 participants interviewed, 63% identified as non-Indigenous, 53% female and 45% lived in very remote areas. Mean age at interview was 58.7 years (SD 13.2). Overall, 82% of participants utilized at least one health service since their cancer diagnosis. All Indigenous participants used at least one service, while 28% of non-Indigenous participants did not use any health service. The services most frequently used by participants were community services (42%) and information sources (40%).

Conclusion

The findings from this study suggest there is variation in the type of community and allied health services used by NT cancer patients across clinical and demographic groups (including Indigenous status). Further qualitative enquiry is needed to better understand this variation, which may reflect differences in service preference, accessibility, health literacy of patients or patient engagement. Such knowledge may inform service delivery improvements to better support cancer patients through their cancer care pathway.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the staff from the cancer centre and the Indigenous Health Liaison Officers, Natasha Roe and Barbara Smith for their support in recruiting patients for this study. We also thank Sam Whitney for assistance with data entry and Elaina Elder-Robinson for administrative support. Mostly importantly, we are immensely grateful to patients who participated in the study.

Availability of data and material

The datasets used and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Funding

This study was supported by the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) funded Centre of Research Excellence (CRE) in Targeted Approaches To Improve Cancer Services for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians (TACTICS; #1153027) and the CRE in Discovering Indigenous Strategies to improve Cancer Outcomes Via Engagement, Research Translation and Training (DISCOVER-TT;#1041111). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. The views expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the funder.

DP was supported by a DISCOVER-TT post-graduate scholarship and received funding support from Charles Darwin University. AD salary is supported by the TACTICS CRE. GG salary is supported by a NHMRC Investigator Grant (#1176651).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Psychological and Clinical Sciences, Charles Darwin University, The Northern, Territory, Darwin, Australia

    Darshit Rajeshkumar Parikh

  2. Wellbeing and Preventable Chronic Diseases Division, Menzies School of Health Research, Charles Darwin University, The Northern Territory, Darwin, Australia

    Abbey Diaz, Matthew Stevens & Gail Garvey

  3. QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, Brisbane, Australia

    Christina Bernardes

  4. Icon Cancer Centre Richmond, Richmond, Victoria, Australia

    Paolo B De Ieso

  5. Ballarat Austin Radiation Oncology Centre, Central, Ballarat, Victoria, Australia

    Thanuja Thachil

  6. Alan Walker Cancer Care Centre, Royal Darwin Hospital, Tiwi, The Northern Territory, Darwin, Australia

    Giam Kar

  7. St Vincent’s Health Australia, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

    Gail Garvey

Authors
  1. Darshit Rajeshkumar Parikh
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  2. Abbey Diaz
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  3. Christina Bernardes
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  4. Paolo B De Ieso
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  5. Thanuja Thachil
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  6. Giam Kar
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  7. Matthew Stevens
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  8. Gail Garvey
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Contributions

Darshit Parikh, Christina Bernardes and Gail Garvey conceived of the study. Darshit Parikh collected the interview data, conducted the analysis and interpreted the data with the support of Gail Garvey, Abbey Diaz and Matthew Stevens. Darshit Parikh and Abbey Diaz were responsible for the data entry and preparation prior to analysis. Paolo De Ieso, Thanuja Thachil, and Giam Kar, facilitated data collection at the study site and provided overall study implementation support. Darshit Parikh drafted the manuscript and all authors revised it and critically contributed to its editing and approved its final version.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Gail Garvey.

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Parikh, D.R., Diaz, A., Bernardes, C. et al. The utilization of allied and community health services by cancer patients living in regional and remote geographical areas in Australia. Support Care Cancer 29, 3209–3217 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-020-05839-6

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