Personalized informational needs of cancer patients: A cross-sectional study in Greece

Abstract

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Cancer patients’ overall health is affected by their health QoL and the social support that they receive. Also, they have multifarious needs included informational needs for social support and for their disease.

Purpose: Τo assess the informational needs of Greek cancer patients and the possible factors that may affect them.

Material-method: this was a cross-sectional quantitative study The sample was compromised with 494 cancer patients. It was convenience and selected from the Chemotherapy Unit of the anticancer public hospital in a major city of Northern Greece. A special questionnaire was utilized for the goals of this study, and it was comprised of two parts.

Results: Most of them were women, married, from the Region of Central Macedonia, and mostly had either lung (22.1%, n=109) or breast cancer (27.1%, n=134). Percentage of 57.5% of the participants reported having communication with Cancer Patient Guidance Center K3 by themselves, while 41.9% of the participants disclosed a communication through the caretaker. Also, the majority of the participants (60.5%) reported having a second request while only 3% disclosed having a third request. Regarding to gender, comparison waw relieved that women were more likely to have contacted K3 by themselves (68.9% vs 40.4%, p-value<0.001) and males were more likely to have had their caretaker to contact with this center (59.1% vs 30.4%, p-value<0.001).

Conclusions: Telecommunication and tele-support are transforming cancer care, providing patients with options to address their informational and other needs. It is important for nurses and other health professionals to address the needs of their patients and help them with appropriate interventions