Keintz Mk

Cancer patient education: Reality and potential

Cancer now attacks one in three Americans, resulting in one in six deaths. Yet, until recently, few patient education programs were directed toward cancer patients. This review examines the status of cancer patient education and suggests future directions. We focus on several aspects of cancer patient education, including needs assessments and programs in treatment, rehabilitation, and continuing care and evaluation. The most comprehensive patient education programs are those directed toward patients in active treatment; one of its tasks is to help patients manage treatment side effects. A major component of rehabilitation programs is counseling patients to help them cope with the effects of cancer. Many patient education programs have performed evaluations; most reflect difficulties in one or more areas, such as selecting appropriate measures or accruing adequate sample sizes. We recommend several directions for the future, including the use of appropriate measurement tools, adequate sample sizes, multimodality programs with incorporation of psychological techniques such as relaxation training and guided imagery, and assessment of the impact of patient education programs on costs.

Reaching mothers of preschool-aged children with a targeted quit smoking intervention

Younger women smoke at disproportionately higher rates than other women and their smoking has a major impact on the health of their young children. To address this problem, a smoking cessation intervention combining minimal advice and assistance from a community health nurse and a tailored self-help guide was developed for low-income women with young children. The program evaluation results reported here were gathered from women using publicly funded pediatric services in four agencies with 32 clinic sites in central and eastern Pennsylvania. Unlike volunteers in formal cessation programs, the women varied widely in their readiness to quit smoking. Follow-up data were obtained from 1,230 female smokers, aged 18 to 39, after receiving brief, individualized smoking cessation advice and encouragement to read the self-help guide. One year later, 12.5 percent reported quitting smoking, and 20.2 percent reported having made a serious quit attempt that lasted at least 7 days. These results suggest that, even among smokers with low socioeconomic status and wide variation in their readiness to quit, minimal intervention programs requiring modest resources can promote cessation.Younger women smoke at disproportionately higher rates than other women and their smoking has a major impact on the health of their young children. To address this problem, a smoking cessation intervention combining minimal advice and assistance from a community health nurse and a tailored self-help guide was developed for low-income women with young children. The program evaluation results reported here were gathered from women using publicly funded pediatric services in four agencies with 32 clinic sites in central and eastern Pennsylvania. Unlike volunteers in formal cessation programs, the women varied widely in their readiness to quit smoking. Follow-up data were obtained from 1,230 female smokers, aged 18 to 39, after receiving brief, individualized smoking cessation advice and encouragement to read the self-help guide. One year later, 12.5 percent reported quitting smoking, and 20.2 percent reported having made a serious quit attempt that lasted at least 7 days. These results suggest that, even among smokers with low socioeconomic status and wide variation in their readiness to quit, minimal intervention programs requiring modest resources can promote cessation.