Adaptation to long-term prostate cancer survival: the perspective of elderly Asian/Pacific Islander wives

Increasingly evident is the important role of partners in patients' adaptation to diagnosis, treatment, and recovery. Yet, little is known about partners' adaptation when patients reach the benchmark known as long-term survival. This study describes elderly wives of prostate cancer survivors' perspectives of adaptation to the enduring challenges of prostate cancer survival and considers their experience in the context of ethnicity. Content analysis and grounded theory methods guided data collection and analysis of two waves of in-depth interviews with 26 elderly Asian/Pacific Islanders (Chinese, Filipino, Japanese, Native Hawaiian) living in Hawai'i. Continuous learning was the most common phenomenon as reflected in four types of adaptive work: involvement in husband's health, affirmation of the marital bond, normalization of adversity, and participation in personally meaningful acts. Issues are highlighted for consideration in developing culturally relevant, age-appropriate, and strengths-based interventions.