Aim: Despite the relatively high incidence of oral cavity/pharynx cancer (OCPC) in African Americans, there is no study to date that assesses their recovery from treatment for OCPC in a prospective longitudinal design. Although the incidence of OCPC continues to rise, particularly in African Americans, overall survival rates have remained relatively stable;thus, there are increasing numbers of successfully treated persons living longer with various treatment sequelae. The goals of this study are four-fold: 1) To delineate patient changes from T1 to T4 in the physical, cognitive, functional, and emotional domains of the recovery process; 2) To predict morbidity and mortality as a function of the recovery variables;3) To develop ethnic-speific models of the recovery process as it pertains to African Americans versus European Americans;4) To test hypotheses with respect to the role of ethnicity in the recovery process. Method: 90 persons diagnosed with OCPC (45 in each ethnic group) will comprise the sample, after adjustments for attrition. They will be administered a demographics questionnaire, a social desirability scale, and a measure of disfigurement/dysfunction at baseline, and the following measures at T1 - T4 (3, 6, 9, and 12 months following treatment): A set of recovery measures as well as a set of socio-cultural measures including social networks, attachment styles (including comfort with dependency), religious participation, emotion regulation patterns, and coping styles. Analysis: Analyses will include descriptive as well as inferential statistics. At the descriptive level we will characterize the physical, functional, cognitive, and emotional needs/capacities at different stages of the recovery process. At the inferential level we will use multi-level structural equation modeling with crosslagged effects to examine ethnic differences in recovery trajectories and Cox proportional hazards survival analysis to examine mortality. The data from this study will be important in guiding the clinical care of OCPC patients and in designing interventions to ameliorate impaired health and to hasten recovery.
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