Educational Levels and Delays in Start of Treatment for Head and Neck Cancers in North-East India

Abstract

Background: There are various patient and professional factors responsible for the delay in start of treatment (SOT) for head and neck cancers (HNC). Materials and Methods: This retrospective study was conducted on data for HNC patients registered at the hospital cancer registry in North-East India. All cases diagnosed during the period of January 2010 to December 2012 were considered for the present analysis. Educational levels of all patients were clustered into 3 groups; illiterates (unable to read or write), qualified (school or high school level education), and highly qualified (college and above). Results: In the present analysis 1066 (34.6%) patients were illiterates, 1,869 (60.6%) patients were literates and 145 (4.7%) of all patients with HNC were highly qualified. The stage at diagnosis were stage I, seen in 62 (34.6%), stage II in 393 (12.8%), stage III in 1,371 (44.5%) and stage IV in 1,254 (40.7%) . The median time (MT) to the SOT from date of attending cancer hospital (DOACH) was, in illiterate group MT was 18 days, whereas in the qualified group of patients it was 15 days and in the highly qualified group was 10 days. Analysis of variance showed there was a significant difference on the mean time for the delay in SOT from DOACH for different educational levels (F=9.923, p=0.000). Conclusions: Educational level is a patient related factor in the delays for the SOT in HNCs in our population.

A Pilot Study on Factors Associated with Presentation Delay in Patients Affected with Head and Neck Cancers

“…So, it must be borne in mind before interpreting the results from this study, as it has not taken into account patients with disabilities or with poor general conditions from rural or urban areas. It has been previously shown that higher educational levels have a positive influence for the start of treatment in patients with HNC (Krishnatreya et al, 2014). Our present survey has shown that literacy is significantly associated with reduction in the median patient delay in HNC.…”

Determination of Patient Learning Needs after Thyroidectomy

“…Zeynep Temiz 1 , Didem Ozturk 2 *, Gulay Altun Ugras 3 , Seher Deniz Oztekin 2 , Emel Sengul 4 post-operative individual needs of patients (Sendir, Buyukyılmaz and Musovi, 2003;Johansson et al, 2007;Falvo, 2011;Galdeano et al, 2014;Krishnatreya et al, 2014). It has been reported in the literature that patients obtaining information specific to their health condition experience an accelerated healing process, show better compliance to treatment, have increased self-confidence, satisfaction, coping skills, and quality of life and decreased anxiety and unplanned medical visits, which in turn reduces health care costs and increases the quality of health care (Clark et al, 2005;Mcmurray et al, 2007;Piredda et al, 2008;Williams, 2008;Myers and Pellino, 2009;Fedai, Cetin and Teke, 2010).…”

Identification of factors influencing delayed presentation of cancer patients

“…Krishnatreya et al has also studied that there was significant difference in educational level of patient and start of treatment in head and neck cancer. 10 Tiwari et al reported that in their study 77.87% of the patients with little or no education presented in advanced stages of the disease. 15 In present study 50 % of patients had Lyratzopoulos et al, reported that socioeconomic inequalities was associated with delayed in diagnosis.…”

“…Krishnatreya et al mentioned that literacy rates have also been indirectly related to the socio-economic condition of the patients causing delayed presentations. 10 Factors such as educational levels, availability of treatment resources and knowledge regarding cancer issues to be important factors affecting the delays. 11,12 At our institute more than 80% patients of cancer present in very advanced stages when treatment options are limited and most of them are managed by palliative intent.…”