Families of long-term cancer survivors: health maintenance advocacy and practice

Research on cancer and aging has addressed health maintenance issues for older adults in long‐term cancer survivorship, but not their family members. The current study focused on two aspects of health maintenance for families: advocacy and practice. Regression analyses explored the effects of demographic characteristics and perceptions during diagnoses and treatments on family members' health maintenance in long‐term survivorship. Family members were acting as health maintenance advocates for their surviving relatives. Advocacy was related to being a caregiver during diagnosis and treatment. In terms of their own health, family members were practicing a high number of health maintenance activities. Practice was associated with being a caregiver during diagnosis and treatment and with being older and White. Implications for interventions and future research with family members are discussed. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.