Health literacy and fear of cancer progression in elderly women newly diagnosed with breast cancer—A longitudinal analysis

Liang

J of Obstet and Gynaecol

2019

Aim To identify the characteristics of fear of cancer recurrence (FCR) in breast cancer patients after surgery and investigate the relationship of FCR with demographic and medical characteristics, quality of life (QOL) and social support. Methods The short version of the Fear of Progression Questionnaire (FoP‐Q‐SF), the functional assessment of cancer therapy for breast cancer (FACT‐B) and the Social Support Rating Scale were administered to the 342 breast cancer patients who had undergone surgical treatment. The analysis was performed to determine potential predictors associated with FCR. Results Of the 465 patients, 342 (73.5%) agreed to take part in the study. The mean age of participants was 51.46 ± 10.50 years (range, 30–81). Of the 342 participants, 92 (26.9%) cases were at Stage I, 131 (38.3%) cases at Stage II, 34 (9.9%) patients at Stage III and 85 (24.9%) patients at Stage IV. Among the 12 items of the FoP‐Q‐SF, the three greatest fears were: Item 10 ‘Worrying that medications could damage the body’, Item 1 ‘Being afraid of disease progression’ and Item 2 ‘Being nervous prior to doctors’ appointments or periodic examinations’. About 68.4% of patients reported the dysfunctional level of fear of progression. Multiple linear regression analysis showed that religious belief, family income, disease stages, social support, QOL were identified as independent predictors for FCR. Conclusion We found that FCR is prevalent in postoperative breast cancer patients, and is influenced by many factors. It is necessary to implement positive intervention measures to alleviate the FCR and improve the QOL of patients.

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

Factors influencing fear of cancer recurrence in patients with breast cancer: Evidence from a survey in Yancheng, China

Liang

J of Obstet and Gynaecol

2019

“…13 Yet, 25% of patients cannot properly obtain and process essential information about their own health verbally and in writing to make appropriate decisions, and this deficiency has made health literacy a major concern with regard to cancer. 14 Health literacy should not only be considered a personal attribute, but also a key health determinant across the community. Health literacy plays a vital role in the self-care of chronic diseases, including cancer, and is an essential element in the ability of each person to engage with health promotion and prevention activities. Therefore, considering the high rate of breast cancer in Iran, on the one hand, and the direct impact of this disease on the health of the family and society, on the other, research on health literacy and self-care can lead to the discovery and identification of pathways which can improve the wellbeing of patients.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Effect of Health Literacy Counselling on Self-Care in Women after Mastectomy: a Randomized Clinical Trial

et al. 2020

Introduction:Breast cancer has a high prevalence, constituting a major cause of mortality in women around the world. Health literacy has a vital role in the self-care of chronic diseases such as cancer and is an essential element in the ability of each person to engage with health promotion. The aim of this study was to determine effect of health literacy counselling on selfcare in women after mastectomy. Methods: This study is a randomized, controlled, clinical trial carried out on 72 women with breast cancer after mastectomy in Fars province. The eligible women entered the study using convenience sampling and were then divided into an intervention and a control group through randomized blocks of four. Health literacy questionnaire and self-care questionnaire were distributed among the participants before, immediately after and three weeks following the intervention. Data analysis was performed in SPSS ver.13. Results:The results showed no significant differences between the two groups in terms of their health literacy and self-care scores before the intervention (P=0.299 and 0.059). A comparison of the mean values showed a greater increase in the mean score of health literacy and score of selfcare immediately and three weeks after the intervention in the intervention group compared to the control group. Also, the mean score of the dimensions of self-care in chemotherapy increased over time in the intervention group. Conclusion:The findings of this study confirm the higher effectiveness of counseling with a health literacy approach on overall self-care in chemotherapy and all its dimensions.Citation: Rastegar M, Mahmoodi Z, Esmaelzadeh S, Sharifi N, Kabir K. The effect of health literacy counselling on self-care in women after mastectomy: a randomized clinical trial.

“…Patients with low health literacy are often not able to understand instructions for medications from their doctors and cannot navigate systems for making appointments, filling prescriptions, and fulfilling other health-related tasks [10,11]. In addition, having low health literacy has been linked to negative health outcomes in areas such as heart disease and fear of cancer progression [12,13].…”

Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

Improving Electronic Health Record Note Comprehension With NoteAid: Randomized Trial of Electronic Health Record Note Comprehension Interventions With Crowdsourced Workers (Preprint)

Lalor¹,

Woolf²,

Yu³

2018

Preprint

Background: Patient portals are becoming more common, and with them the ability of patients to access their personal Electronic Health Records (EHRs). EHRs, in particular the free-text EHR notes, often contain medical jargon and terms that are difficult for laypersons to understand. There are many online resources for learning more about particular diseases or conditions, including systems that directly link to lay definitions or educational materials for medical concepts. Objective: Our goal is to determine whether use of one such tool, NoteAid, leads to higher EHR note comprehension ability. Methods: In this work we compare a passive, self-service educational resource (MedlinePlus) with an active resource (NoteAid) where definitions are provided to the user for medical concepts that the system identifies. We use Amazon Mechanical Turk (AMT) to recruit individuals to complete ComprehENotes, a new test of EHR note comprehension. Results: Mean scores for individuals with access to NoteAid are significantly higher than the mean baseline scores, both for raw scores (p=0.008) and estimated ability (p=0.017). Conclusions:In our experiments we show that the active intervention leads to significantly higher scores on the comprehension test as compared to a baseline group with no resources provided. In contrast, there is no significant difference between the group that was provided with the passive intervention and the baseline group. Finally, we analyze the demographics of the individuals who