Applying the Multiphase Optimization Strategy for the Development of a Culturally Tailored Resilience-Building Intervention to Facilitate Advance Care Planning Discussions for Chinese Americans: Protocol for a Survey and Qualitative Study

Background: Newly arrived Chinese Americans face difficulties engaging in advance care planning (ACP) discussions with their family caregivers. Avoiding such discussions and failing to complete advance directives can delay palliative and hospice care. Yet, timely palliative care is essential to maintaining the quality of life at the end of life. Currently, there is a lack of interventions to help Chinese Americans diagnosed with cancer or heart disease overcome the barriers to engaging in ACP discussions via effective use of resilience.

Objective: This study aims to develop a culturally tailored, resilience-building intervention for Chinese Americans with cancer or heart disease.

Methods: The development of this intervention will be guided by the 3-phase multiphase optimization strategy. In the first phase of preparation, we will examine the prespecified components of the intervention through pilot studies to understand the necessity of each component. First, a qualitative study will be conducted to understand the experiences of 10 religious or spiritual leaders who have provided pastoral or spiritual care to Chinese Americans in Chicago, United States. The interview findings will be categorized as facilitators and barriers and integrated into the development of the intervention's resilience-building guide. Second, a cross-sectional study will be conducted to assess the readiness of Chinese Americans to engage in ACP discussions with their family using surveys. Third, think-aloud interviews will be conducted to understand the experiences of 18 pairs of Chinese Americans and their family caregivers regarding the prototype of the culturally tailored, resilience-building intervention. Finally, we will examine the feasibility and acceptability of the intervention prototype along with issues related to the study's implementation process.

Results: Recruitment for the qualitative study began in November 2023. As of October 2024, a total of 7 participants have been recruited, enabling a preliminary qualitative analysis to evaluate the analytical framework developed from the literature. Recruitment for the cross-sectional study began in April 2024, and as of October 2024, a total of 63 Chinese Americans have participated. The potential participant recruitment lists for the think-aloud interviews have been received, enabling recruitment to begin after the preliminary qualitative analysis is completed.

Conclusions: The proposed culturally tailored, resilience-building intervention is an innovative way to facilitate ACP discussions among Chinese Americans, particularly those diagnosed with serious chronic diseases. The findings from all 3 study methods will inform the development of the proposed intervention and identify effective recruitment strategies for this underserved and hard-to-reach population to be used in future research.

International registered report identifier (irrid): DERR1-10.2196/59343.