Distress among African American and White adults with cancer in Louisiana

Purpose/Objectives: Screening for distress is a key priority in cancer care, and African American patients may experience increased distress compared to White patients. However, this question has not yet been addressed in Louisiana. The purpose of the present study was to examine the relationship between African American race and distress at a cancer center in Louisiana.Design/Methods: This was a retrospective study of 1,544 patients who were treated at an academic cancer center in 2015. Extracted data included patient self-reports of distress using the single-item Distress Thermometer (DT) and demographic and clinical characteristics. Hypotheses were tested using logistic regression.Findings: Distress was present in 19.7% of the sample. In univariate analyses, African American patients were more likely than White patients to experience distress (OR = 1.38, p = .013). However, race was no longer associated with distress in a multivariate analysis that adjusted for the covariates of age, gender, cancer site, presence of metastases, and number of distress screenings (OR = 1.07, p = .670). Distress was more common in patients who were younger (OR = 2.26, p < .001), diagnosed with lung/bronchus cancer (OR = 5.28, p < .001), or screened more often (OR = 5.20, p < .001). Distress was less common among patients with female breast cancer (OR = 0.39, p = .015).Conclusions/Implications: This study suggests that African American individuals with cancer in Louisiana are at increased risk for distress, but that this can be attributed to African American patients being younger, more likely to have lung cancer, and screened more frequently. Implications include careful consideration of patient race, age, and cancer site during distress management in cancer care.