African American patient and caregiver attitudes and perceptions of community health workers as lay patient navigators in palliative care

Concurrent palliative care for patients with advanced cancer has been shown to reduce physical and psychological symptoms, and improve the quality of life of patients with advanced cancer. Underutilization of palliative care services, especially among African American patients with advanced cancer, remains an important public health problem. To address this gap, we developed a community health worker (CHW) palliative care intervention for African American patients with advanced cancer, which is being formally assessed through an ongoing effectiveness-implementation trial (NCT05407844). As part of the preparatory phase of this study, we conducted qualitative interviews with African American patients with advanced cancer and their caregivers. The objective of this analysis was to explore patient and caregiver attitudes and perceptions of the CHW palliative care intervention to support African American patients with advanced cancer in accessing palliative care.