Resilience in East Asian Immigrants for Advance Care Planning Discussions

Development of a Culturally Tailored Digital Resilience-Building Intervention for East Asian Immigrants With Cancer to Facilitate Advance Care Planning Discussions

The purpose of the study is to develop a culturally tailored digital resilience-building intervention to help East Asian immigrants engage in advance care planning discussions with their family caregivers.

Study Overview

• Status: Recruiting
• Conditions: Neoplasms; Advance Care Planning
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Culturally Tailored Digital Resilience-Building; Behavioral: Semi-structured interviews

Detailed Description

Advance care planning (ACP) is a process to facilitate decision-making for future care and document values and preferences. However, the advance directive completion rates in East Asian Americans are low, which may extend to disparities in end-of-life care, including rates of hospice use and prevalence of unwanted aggressive treatments. To address this, this study uses information technology to develop a culturally tailored digital resilience-building intervention with and for East Asian immigrants to help them engage in ACP discussions. There are two aims of this study: (1) Conduct semi-structured interviews with a total of 30 religious leaders to identify the barriers and facilitators associated with discussing ACP and death-related topics with immigrants from China/Taiwan, Japan, and Korea and (2) Develop a culturally tailored digital resilience-building intervention using think-aloud interviews with 27 pairs of East Asian immigrants with cancer and their family caregivers (9 pairs each for immigrants from China/Taiwan, Japan, and Korea).

• Study Type: Observational
• Enrollment (Estimated): 84
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

• Study Contact: Name: Li-Ting H. Longcoy; Phone Number: 312-996-3024; Email: liting@uic.edu

Study Locations

• United States
  • Illinois
    • Chicago, Illinois, United States, 60607
      • Recruiting
      • University of Illinois Chicago
      • Contact: Li-Ting H. Longcoy; Phone Number: 312-996-3024; Email: liting@uic.edu

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: Adult; Older Adult
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No

• Sampling Method: Non-Probability Sample

Study Population

Religious leaders providing spiritual care to Asian Americans/immigrants or Asian Americans/immigrants living with cancer

Description

Inclusion Criteria for Religious Leaders:

• Age ≥ 18 years
• Serving as a chaplain or religious leader at a healthcare setting or religious organization
• Having experience providing pastoral or spiritual care to Chinese, Japanese, and Korean Americans in the US
• Being able to read and respond to questions in English, Mandarin, Cantonese, Japanese, or Korean.

Exclusion criteria: Not willing to provide consent.

Inclusion Criteria for Patients:

• Age ≥ 18 years
• Having a cancer diagnosis
• Likely self-identifying as a Chinese, Japanese, or Korean American/immigrant
• Being able to read and respond to questions in either English, Mandarin, Japanese, Korean, or Chinese dialects, such as Cantonese, Shanghai, Taishanese, or Taiwanese.

Exclusion Criteria for Patients:

• Having cognitive impairment per the Short Portable Mental Status Questionnaire with more than three errors

Inclusion Criteria for Family Caregivers:

• Age ≥ 18 years
• Being able to read and respond to questions in either English, Mandarin, Japanese, Korean, or Chinese dialects, such as Cantonese, Shanghai, Taishanese, or Taiwanese
• Having a family member who is likely to self-identify as a Chinese, Japanese, or Korean American/immigrant and has been diagnosed with cancer

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Number of groups / cohorts

2

Cohorts and Interventions

Group / Cohort	Intervention / Treatment
Culturally Tailored Digital Resilience-Building; The culturally tailored resilience-building materials will be provided to East Asian immigrants with cancer and their family caregivers.	Behavioral: Culturally Tailored Digital Resilience-Building; The Culturally Tailored Digital Resilience-Building materials include an introduction to advance care planning and resilience skills that specifically address cultural beliefs and barriers.
Religious leaders; Religious leaders providing spiritual care to Asian Americans	Behavioral: Semi-structured interviews; Semi-structured interviews with religious leaders who provide spiritual care to Asian Americans/immigrants.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Usability	Use the System Usability Scale (range: 0-100) to assess the usability of the intervention. Higher scores indicate greater perceived usability by users.	Immediately at the end of the think-aloud interview

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Acceptability	Use the Acceptability E-scale to assess the acceptability of the intervention. Scale total scores range from 6 to 30, and higher scores indicate greater acceptance for the proposed intervention.	Immediately at the end of the think-aloud interview

Other Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Religious leaders experience	An in-depth understanding of religious leaders' perspectives on barriers and facilitators to discussing death-related topics with immigrants from East Asia.	Immediately at the end of the interview

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University of Illinois at Chicago
• Collaborators: Rockefeller University
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Li-Ting H. Longcoy, University of Illinois Chicago College of Nursing

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): October 27, 2023
• Primary Completion (Estimated): June 30, 2026
• Study Completion (Estimated): June 30, 2026

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: September 6, 2023
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: September 6, 2023
• First Posted (Actual): September 13, 2023

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): February 18, 2026
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: February 16, 2026
• Last Verified: January 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Neoplasms
• Other Study ID Numbers: 2023-0560; KC_Awd_114452 (Other Identifier: University of Illinois at Chicago)

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No