Information needs of breast cancer patients attending care at Tikur Anbessa Specialized Hospital, Addis Ababa Ethiopia, 2017
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Date
2017-06
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Addis Abeba Universty
Abstract
Background: Breast cancer is the leading cancer among women in Ethiopia worldwide. Cancer patients are always eager to have information about every topic related to their illness and having the information is helpful for them to cope and for a better quality of life. But little is known about the information needs of breast cancer patients. So this study will address that gap.
Objective: Assessing the information needs of breast cancer patients attending care at Tikur Anbessa Specialized Hospital, Addis Ababa Ethiopia, 2017
Methods: Hospital based cross sectional study and qualitative methods was used. Toronto informational needs questionnaire was used to address the information needs and data on sociodemographic factors was assessed using structured questionnaire from literatures. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with patients and their care givers to support the quantitative part. Likert scales to determine whether patients need to know more about 52 items of information categorized under five domains namely treatment, disease, and investigative tests, physical and psychosocial was used. High mean score show higher information needs. One way ANOVA and regression was done to see association of sociodemographic and clinical variables with information needs. All statistical analysis was performed using STATA (Version 14), and statistical significance was set at P < 0.05.
Result: The total mean score for overall information need among breast cancer patients is 238.7(22.5) which means 4.59 with a range scale of 156-260. Among the five subscales information on disease and information on treatment were the most highly needed areas with mean percentage of 94.8 and 93.7 respectively and 254(67%) of them preferred the information to come from health professionals. Diagnosing as stage IV (p=0.02) &Urban residence is associated with less and high information needs respectively when compared to other categories.
Conclusion and recommendation: The information needs of breast cancer patients were high. Determining what the patient’s needs is an important aspect of providing health care especially in cancer care. The health care system should include a way of information provision for breast cancer patients based on their needs.
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Information needs of breast cancer patients attending