A New Method of Building Patients’ Health-Awareness in Uro-Oncology

Abstract

BackgroundDespite vast scientific evidence supporting health-awareness in the prevention and treatment outcome of cancer, studies comparing the effectiveness of different educational methods in in raising patients’ health-awareness are lacking. ObjectivesWe present and evaluate a new patients’ decision-making aid—an educational method based on staging mock medical appointments at a urological office. Materials and MethodsFour different “real-life scenarios” addressing prostate, kidney, bladder, and testicular cancers were prepared and played out by health professionals. The participants (n = 181) who observed the scenes were asked to fill in a questionnaire prepared by the authors. Results were then analysed statistically; P-value < 0.05 was considered significant. ResultsA statistically significant difference was found in assessing the intelligibility of the presented material depending on the participants’ level of education and where they lived (eg, village, town, city). According to 95% of the participants, the educational method provided during our meeting contributed to a significant increase in their knowledge of cancer. Moreover, 89% expressed their need for further education. ConclusionBuilding patients’ health-awareness by health professionals is important and may influence therapy outcome. The effectiveness and perception of our method by patients require further research and evaluation; however, the presented results seem promising.

Keywords

• patient participation
• health knowledge
• urologic neoplasms
• shared decision-making
• educational techniques