Preparing patients with cancer and their providers for climate hazards: the role of qualitative research.
Objective: This comment explores the pivotal role of qualitative research for expanding knowledge and practice-and filling in gaps-around protecting patients with cancer from compounding disasters. Climate-related hazards are creating accelerating threats to population health, particularly in the realm of exposures to perilous heat and extreme weather events. Patients with cancer, including those recently diagnosed, currently undergoing treatment, or in survivorship, experience elevated risks due to their compromised health status and vulnerability to cancer care disruptions during disasters. Patients with cancer require customized support for performing both general and cancer care-specific disaster preparedness actions.
Methods: A multi-disciplinary team of oncologists, psycho-oncologists, cancer researchers, and disaster public health and mental health experts is collaborating on mixed-methods research to define the best approaches for supporting patients with cancer to optimize their health and safety during exposures to hazards such as extreme heat and weather-related disasters. This comment outlines the use of qualitative approaches, including focus groups with patients and patient advisory committee members, subject matter expert interviews, and key informant interviews with cancer center professionals as a complement to detailed quantitative surveys to explicate disaster preparedness strategies and devise a "toolkit" of practical disaster preparedness resources matched to the unique needs of patients with cancer.
Conclusions: Qualitative research is optimally suited for developing a nuanced understanding of how patients with cancer receive disaster warnings, make preparedness decisions, engage in protective actions, use social support, and deal with the combined stressors of their cancer diagnosis and disaster threat. Qualitative research provides critical insights into the creation and evaluation of tools to enhance disaster preparedness across all stages of the cancer journey, from initial diagnosis through treatment and into survivorship.