The impact of the survivorship care plan on health care use: 2-year follow-up results of the ROGY care trial

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper was to assess the impact of survivorship care plan (SCP) provision and moderating factors on health care use following endometrial cancer treatment.

Methods

Women newly diagnosed with endometrial cancer were included in a pragmatic cluster randomized trial at 12 hospitals in the Netherlands and were randomly assigned to SCP or usual care (n = 221; 75% response). The SCP was generated using the web-based Registrationsystem Oncological GYnecology (ROGY) and provided tailored information regarding disease, treatment, and possible late-effects. Cancer-related use of general practitioner, specialist, and additional health care was collected through questionnaires after diagnosis and at 6-, 12-, and 24-month follow-up and compared using linear multilevel regression analyses.

Results

Women who received an SCP had more cancer-related primary care visits compared to the usual care arm during the first year after diagnosis (β = 0.7, p < 0.01). At 6-month follow-up, women in the SCP group used more additional health care compared to women receiving usual care (24 vs. 11%, p = 0.04). Women with anxious symptoms (p = 0.03) and women who received radiotherapy (p = 0.01) had a higher primary care use within the first year after treatment, when receiving an SCP.

Conclusions

The SCP increases primary health care consumption the first year after treatment, particularly in women treated with radiotherapy and women with anxious symptoms.

Implications for cancer survivors

These findings imply that the SCP enables women in need of supportive care to seek relevant care at an early stage after treatment. Whether this results in improved patient-reported outcomes in the long-term needs to be further studied.

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