Journal of Health Science and Medical Research (JHSMR) (Apr 2009)
Common information and support needs of callers to the Songklanagarind Hospital cancer hotline service
Abstract
The objective of this descriptive research is to identify the most common information and support needs of callers contacting a Cancer Hotline, the association between these needs and the types of callers and also to describe the changing pattern of callers' needs. The study setting was the Cancer Hotline Service operated by the Cancer Centre in the Faculty of Medicine at Prince of Songkla University located in Hat Yai, Songkhla. The information was collected between 2004 and 2007, and was analyzed using descriptive statistics and the Chi-square test. Our results indicated that the majority of callers were women. The types of callers were patients caregivers and the public respectively, and each call lasted between one and five minutes. The three most common information and support needs requested were similar between patients and caregivers: (1) general information about cancer, (2) symptom management, and (3) cancer treatment, although worried about getting cancer among the public were significantly different from patients and caregivers. This paper discusses additional strategies for setting up a telephone service for support and health information.
