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Cao T, Rishworth A, Wilson K, Ali F, Gallaway T. Lived Experiences of the COVID-19 Pandemic Among the Vietnamese Population in the Region of Peel. J Racial Ethn Health Disparities 2023:10.1007/s40615-023-01804-1. [PMID: 37821791 DOI: 10.1007/s40615-023-01804-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/12/2023] [Revised: 09/12/2023] [Accepted: 09/14/2023] [Indexed: 10/13/2023]
Abstract
Racial discrimination towards Southeast Asian populations is a longstanding issue in Canada which has intensified during the COVID-19 pandemic. Although extensive work demonstrates inequities among Southeast Asian communities during the pandemic, much work categorizes Asians as one homogenous population neglecting the unique experiences of different Asian subgroups along with the ways COVID-19 differentially affects Southeast Asians. To attend to population variations, this paper explores the lived experiences among Vietnamese individuals during the pandemic in the Peel Region of Ontario Canada. Specifically, this paper examines social and economic impacts of COVID-19, access to healthcare services and vaccines, sources of vaccine information, and impacts of COVID-19 related discrimination among young and older adults. Drawing on in-depth interviews with young and older adults (n=6:8) the results reveal important social and economic impacts created by COVID-19 that vary across generations and impact health and wellbeing. These impacts are challenged further by barriers to healthcare access which were compounded by intersecting inequities experienced among Vietnamese immigrants in the Peel Region. While vaccine hesitancy was not a main concern, the findings demonstrate important generational differences with respect to commonly used and trusted information related to historical events and social media use. Although racial discrimination was a dominant concern, younger participants did not feel unsafe but expressed concern for the safety of their older family members and friends. The study underscores the need to consider historical dynamics and the ways they shape government opinions and trust, experiences of racial discrimination and socio-economic realities among racialized, immigrant populations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tiffany Cao
- Department of Geography, Geomatics and Environment, University of Toronto, Mississauga, Mississauga, Ontario, Canada
| | - Andrea Rishworth
- Department of Geography, Geomatics and Environment, University of Toronto, Mississauga, Mississauga, Ontario, Canada.
| | - Kathi Wilson
- Department of Geography, Geomatics and Environment, University of Toronto, Mississauga, Mississauga, Ontario, Canada
| | - Fatema Ali
- Department of Anthropology, University of Toronto, Mississauga, Mississauga, Ontario, Canada
| | - Tracey Gallaway
- Department of Anthropology, University of Toronto, Mississauga, Mississauga, Ontario, Canada
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Ugas MA, Avery L, Wang Y, Berlin A, Giuliani ME, Krzyzanowska M, Papadakos TJ, Quartey NK(L, Samoil D, Papadakos JK. COVID-19 and Cancer Patients in the Second Year of the Pandemic: Investigating Treatment Impact, Information Sources, and COVID-19-Related Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices. Curr Oncol 2022; 29:8917-8936. [PMID: 36421354 PMCID: PMC9689213 DOI: 10.3390/curroncol29110701] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/08/2022] [Revised: 10/31/2022] [Accepted: 11/16/2022] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND The novel coronavirus that has triggered the present COVID-19 pandemic continues to spread globally, resulting in widespread morbidity and mortality. Patients with cancer remain one of the most vulnerable subsets of the population to the disease. This study examined the effects of the pandemic on cancer patients' treatment, psychology, knowledge, attitudes, and practices. METHODS A survey was emailed to 9861 patients at a cancer centre in Toronto, Canada. Descriptive results were summarized. Qualitative feedback was coded and summarized. Regression modelling was used to explore factors associated with patient psychological well-being, knowledge, attitudes, and practices. RESULTS A total of 1760 surveys were completed, with a response rate of 17.8%. Most participants did not experience any pandemic-related treatment delays, and vaccination rates were high. Participants who identified themselves as non-white (OR 3.30, CI: 1.30-5.30; p ≤ 0.001), and those who referred to journal articles for information (p = 0.002) reported higher psychological impact scores. There were no significant predictors of whether participants would use personal protective equipment when leaving their homes or whether they would go to crowded places. DISCUSSION This study provides another snapshot of cancer patients perceptions and needs during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mohamed A. Ugas
- Cancer Health Literacy Research Centre, Cancer Education, Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, Toronto, ON M5G 2N2, Canada
| | - Lisa Avery
- Biostatistics Department, Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, Toronto, ON M5G 2C1, Canada
- Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON M5T 3M6, Canada
| | - Yanning Wang
- Biostatistics Department, Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, Toronto, ON M5G 2C1, Canada
| | - Alejandro Berlin
- Department of Radiation Oncology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON M5T 1P5, Canada
- Radiation Medicine Program, Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, Toronto, ON M5G 2C1, Canada
- Techna Institute, University Health Network, Toronto, ON M5G 2C4, Canada
| | - Meredith E. Giuliani
- Cancer Health Literacy Research Centre, Cancer Education, Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, Toronto, ON M5G 2N2, Canada
- Department of Radiation Oncology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON M5T 1P5, Canada
- Radiation Medicine Program, Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, Toronto, ON M5G 2C1, Canada
- The Institute for Education Research (TIER), University Health Network, Toronto, ON M5T 1V4, Canada
| | - Monika Krzyzanowska
- Division of Medical Oncology and Hematology, Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, Toronto, ON M5G 2C1, Canada
- Division of Medical Oncology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON M5S 3H2, Canada
| | - Tina J. Papadakos
- Cancer Health Literacy Research Centre, Cancer Education, Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, Toronto, ON M5G 2N2, Canada
- Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON M5T 3M6, Canada
- The Institute for Education Research (TIER), University Health Network, Toronto, ON M5T 1V4, Canada
| | - Naa Kwarley (Linda) Quartey
- Cancer Health Literacy Research Centre, Cancer Education, Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, Toronto, ON M5G 2N2, Canada
| | - Diana Samoil
- Cancer Health Literacy Research Centre, Cancer Education, Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, Toronto, ON M5G 2N2, Canada
| | - Janet K. Papadakos
- Cancer Health Literacy Research Centre, Cancer Education, Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, Toronto, ON M5G 2N2, Canada
- Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON M5T 3M6, Canada
- The Institute for Education Research (TIER), University Health Network, Toronto, ON M5T 1V4, Canada
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Ugas MA, Samoil D, Avery L, Berlin A, Giuliani ME, Papadakos TJ, Quartey NKL, Papadakos JK. COVID-19 and patients with cancer: Investigating treatment impact, information sources, and COVID-19-related knowledge, attitudes, and practices. Cancer 2021; 128:746-761. [PMID: 34705287 PMCID: PMC8653138 DOI: 10.1002/cncr.33976] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/29/2021] [Revised: 09/10/2021] [Accepted: 09/27/2021] [Indexed: 12/15/2022]
Abstract
BACKGROUND The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has caused enormous strain on public health. Patients with cancer are particularly susceptible to the disease, and their treatment plans have been threatened by public health restrictions designed to contain the spread. METHODS This study examined the effects of the pandemic on cancer patients' psychology, knowledge, attitudes, and practices concerning COVID-19 as well as their perceptions of the impact of COVID-19 on their cancer health care services. A survey was sent to 5800 patients at a cancer center in Toronto, Canada. Descriptive results were summarized. Qualitative feedback was coded and summarized. To examine for potential associations, regression models were tested for the outcomes of patient psychological well-being, knowledge, attitudes, and practices, and they accounted for several demographic, health literacy, and disease variables. RESULTS A total of 1631 surveys were completed. Most patients saw their appointments shifted to virtual visits, and for a substantial minority, there was no change. A majority of the patients (62%) expressed fears about contracting the virus. There were no independent predictors of COVID-19-related knowledge. Fears were more pronounced among patients who did not speak English and those who used social media more often. Female participants, those who scored higher on knowledge questions, and those who used cancer center materials were more likely to take preventative measures against infection. CONCLUSIONS This study provides a snapshot of the state of cancer patient treatment and the knowledge, attitudes, and practices of patients between the first 2 waves of the pandemic. The study's results can inform our understanding of adaptation to conditions during and after the outbreak.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mohamed A Ugas
- Cancer Health Literacy Research Centre, Cancer Education, Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
| | - Diana Samoil
- Cancer Health Literacy Research Centre, Cancer Education, Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
| | - Lisa Avery
- Biostatistics Department, Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
| | - Alejandro Berlin
- Department of Radiation Oncology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.,Radiation Medicine Program, Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.,Techna Institute, University Health Network, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
| | - Meredith E Giuliani
- Cancer Health Literacy Research Centre, Cancer Education, Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.,Department of Radiation Oncology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.,Radiation Medicine Program, Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
| | - Tina J Papadakos
- Cancer Health Literacy Research Centre, Cancer Education, Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.,Patient Education, Ontario Health (Cancer Care Ontario), Toronto, Ontario, Canada
| | - Naa Kwarley Linda Quartey
- Cancer Health Literacy Research Centre, Cancer Education, Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
| | - Janet K Papadakos
- Cancer Health Literacy Research Centre, Cancer Education, Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.,Patient Education, Ontario Health (Cancer Care Ontario), Toronto, Ontario, Canada.,Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
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Ibrahim M, Gauch S, Salman O, Alqahtani M. An automated method to enrich consumer health vocabularies using GloVe word embeddings and an auxiliary lexical resource. PeerJ Comput Sci 2021; 7:e668. [PMID: 34458573 PMCID: PMC8371999 DOI: 10.7717/peerj-cs.668] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/20/2021] [Accepted: 07/19/2021] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Clear language makes communication easier between any two parties. A layman may have difficulty communicating with a professional due to not understanding the specialized terms common to the domain. In healthcare, it is rare to find a layman knowledgeable in medical terminology which can lead to poor understanding of their condition and/or treatment. To bridge this gap, several professional vocabularies and ontologies have been created to map laymen medical terms to professional medical terms and vice versa. OBJECTIVE Many of the presented vocabularies are built manually or semi-automatically requiring large investments of time and human effort and consequently the slow growth of these vocabularies. In this paper, we present an automatic method to enrich laymen's vocabularies that has the benefit of being able to be applied to vocabularies in any domain. METHODS Our entirely automatic approach uses machine learning, specifically Global Vectors for Word Embeddings (GloVe), on a corpus collected from a social media healthcare platform to extend and enhance consumer health vocabularies. Our approach further improves the consumer health vocabularies by incorporating synonyms and hyponyms from the WordNet ontology. The basic GloVe and our novel algorithms incorporating WordNet were evaluated using two laymen datasets from the National Library of Medicine (NLM), Open-Access Consumer Health Vocabulary (OAC CHV) and MedlinePlus Healthcare Vocabulary. RESULTS The results show that GloVe was able to find new laymen terms with an F-score of 48.44%. Furthermore, our enhanced GloVe approach outperformed basic GloVe with an average F-score of 61%, a relative improvement of 25%. Furthermore, the enhanced GloVe showed a statistical significance over the two ground truth datasets with P < 0.001. CONCLUSIONS This paper presents an automatic approach to enrich consumer health vocabularies using the GloVe word embeddings and an auxiliary lexical source, WordNet. Our approach was evaluated used healthcare text downloaded from MedHelp.org, a healthcare social media platform using two standard laymen vocabularies, OAC CHV, and MedlinePlus. We used the WordNet ontology to expand the healthcare corpus by including synonyms, hyponyms, and hypernyms for each layman term occurrence in the corpus. Given a seed term selected from a concept in the ontology, we measured our algorithms' ability to automatically extract synonyms for those terms that appeared in the ground truth concept. We found that enhanced GloVe outperformed GloVe with a relative improvement of 25% in the F-score.
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