Fig 1 - available from: BMC Cancer
This content is subject to copyright. Terms and conditions apply.
Source publication
Background:
The WHO recognises that community pharmacists are the most accessible healthcare professionals to the general public. Most patients regularly visit community pharmacies for health information and also seek advice from pharmacists with respect to signs and symptoms of cancer. As readily accessible health care professionals, community ph...
Contexts in source publication
Context 1
... investigators (KM and FO) independently read the titles and abstracts of all records retrieved and assessed them against the set criteria (Table 1). Data from the in- cluded studies were extracted by the primary reviewer (KM) using a standardized research matrix [10], and later checked by another reviewer (AB). Author's name, year of publication, country and setting, study design, type of cancer, sample size, findings, where the data col- lected (Appendix 2). The search results were independ- ently reviewed by two authors (KM and FO). The database search identified 1538 records. A total of 349 duplicate records were deleted. One thousand one hun- dred and eight nine (1189) articles were independently screened on title and abstract by two authors (KM and FO) and irrelevant articles were excluded. The authors evaluated 32 full-text articles for eligibility. After exclu- sion of 28 articles, 4 studies met the criteria for inclu- sion in the review. A flow chart summarising the selection procedure is shown in Fig. ...
Context 2
... database search found 1538 publications between 2005 and July 2017. A total of 349 duplicate records were removed. A further 1173 records were excluded based on their abstracts and titles. Following the exclu- sion criteria, another 28 records were also excluded. The remaining 4 articles which met the inclusion criteria were read in full. A flowchart summarising the selection process is shown in Fig. ...
Similar publications
Introduction:
Screening, a routine procedure done on individuals with or without disease, results in the early detection of disease. The aim of this study was to assess healthcare professionals' (HCPs) level of knowledge related to and the adherence to screening.
Methods:
A survey was conducted in HCPs, using a self-administered questionnaire. K...
Citations
... 95% of participants appreciated the educational service along with the breast cancer educational pamphlets distribution. The pharmacist can expand the expectations of their services for the patients and generate opportunities to contribute to health promotion activities [23]. ...
Background
Breast cancer is rapidly increasing worldwide. Pakistan has a high incidence rate of 1 in every nine women. The lack of awareness is the remarkable reason for delayed diagnosis, thus resulting in high mortality. In this study, we aimed to determine the impact of pharmacist-led breast cancer education at community pharmacies in promoting breast cancer awareness.
Methodology
A longitudinal pre-post intervention study was conducted on 319 participants using a self-designed questionnaire. During the pre-intervention phase, participants were interviewed at various community pharmacies and were administered with the questionnaires. The provision of breast cancer educational session followed the session. After three months, the participants were interviewed by phone, and the questionnaires were filled in again during the post-intervention phase. Data was analyzed using SPSS version 25.
Results
The pre-post phase data evaluation reported improved breast cancer awareness among the study participants, where there was a significant increase (p = 0.000) in awareness of breast cancer symptoms, risk factors, and diagnostic techniques. There was also a marked increase (93.8%) in breast self-examination practice during the post-intervention phase. In fact, knowledge about clinical breast examination improved from 8.5% (pre-intervention phase) to 84.4% (post-intervention phase). Additionally, the awareness about mammography as an essential screening technique improved markedly, where approximately 34.7% of eligible women went to have mammography in the post-intervention phase.
Conclusion
Pharmacists, being competent healthcare professionals, play an important role in contributing to public health promotion activities. Therefore, pharmacist-led educational services should be employed to improve breast cancer awareness and for better disease control.
... Correspondingly, Hussainy et al. found that pharmacists had a low level of knowledge about cancer treatments and regarded the issue of cancer treatments, together with supplement use, as important to know more about [18]. Other studies investigating pharmacy staffs' knowledge about skin cancer [35][36][37], prostate cancer [38], breast cancer [21,39], and bowel and breast cancer [40] also detected knowledge gaps as limiting pharmacists' engagement in health promotion in cancer [21,[35][36][37]39,40] and the counseling of cancer patients [38]. ...
... Correspondingly, Hussainy et al. found that pharmacists had a low level of knowledge about cancer treatments and regarded the issue of cancer treatments, together with supplement use, as important to know more about [18]. Other studies investigating pharmacy staffs' knowledge about skin cancer [35][36][37], prostate cancer [38], breast cancer [21,39], and bowel and breast cancer [40] also detected knowledge gaps as limiting pharmacists' engagement in health promotion in cancer [21,[35][36][37]39,40] and the counseling of cancer patients [38]. ...
... Previous studies suggested that the public might not be aware of the pharmacist's role and that the patients still have the traditional view that a pharmacy is exclusively a place to pick up medication [21,39,40], so they do not expect to be counseled on cancer. In this study, pharmacy staff regarded this presumption as one of the largest barriers in counseling. ...
Objective:
The study aimed to determine Danish community pharmacy staff's knowledge, educational needs, and barriers when communicating with cancer patients/survivors. Furthermore, the study investigated whether pharmacy staff was interested in participating in education about cancer.
Methods:
A cross-sectional questionnaire survey was conducted among community pharmacy staff (pharmacists and pharmaconomists) in Denmark. Descriptive and bivariate (t-test and chi-square) statistics were used to analyze the data.
Results:
In total, 134 staff members responded to the questionnaire. Their self-reported knowledge of cancer-related topics was between 'very little knowledge' and 'some knowledge'. The most well-known topics concerned risk factors for cancer and side effects from cancer treatments. The importance of learning more about the same topics was rated between 'important' and 'very important'. The largest barriers identified in counseling cancer patients/survivors were a lack of knowledge about cancer, a focus on healthcare problems other than cancer, and a traditional view of community pharmacies as a place to pick up medication. Pharmacy staff expressed interest in participating in educational programs about cancer treatment (91.0%), communication with cancer patients (88.1%), and late effects of cancer (93.3%).
Conclusion:
Community pharmacy staff show interest in participating in education regarding cancer, but need more knowledge to properly counsel cancer patients and survivors at the community pharmacies. This important barrier should be addressed in future educational programs for community pharmacy staff.
... In general, women should have sufficient awareness of BC and how to perform the examination, and pharmacists are the most accessible healthcare professionals to the general public. Most patients regularly visit community pharmacies for health information, including cancer information (9). Pharmacists are therefore in a good position to raise awareness, so our study aims to assess the awareness of female pharmacy students about BC in Umm Al-Qura University, Makkah region, Saudi Arabia. ...
Breast cancer (BC) is one of the causes of the leading mortality in Saudi Arabia. Previous studies have shown a recent dramatic increase in BC cases in Saudi Arabia. Therefore, the demand is high for measuring the level of awareness among young Saudi females about BC and its causes. This study is designed to assess the awareness level of female pharmacy students in the Faculty of Pharmacy , Umm Al-Qura University, Makkah region, Saudi Arabia about the general information regarding BC, as pharmacists are the health practitioners most accessible to the public. The data in this study were collected using a modified online questionnaire delivered to 217 participants in the Ccollege of Pphar-macy. Our results showed a sufficient awareness level among future female pharmacists, which may help in spreading their knowledge to society.
... The study revealed that the intervention led to improved blood pressure control, cholesterol, COPD, and asthma. However, less significant results were seen in diabetes and depression 33 . It is believed by WHO that community pharmacists are the most reachable health care members. ...
Background: The profession of pharmacy nowadays is expanding from dispensing medication to evidence-based, patient-centered approach, in which optimizing pharmacologic therapy is the goal. Community pharmacists can optimize the overall quality of care especially in rural populations where people most of the time can't afford to visit physician. Pharmacist caring of patients is the new pharmacist's role. Community pharmacist can motivate patients to adhere to their medications. Medication review and patients' monitoring contribute to resolve serious problems in health care system. Methods: This study involves four phases. Phase one implies training of community pharmacists. Phase two is quantitative and involves baseline evaluation of recruited patients. Phase three is the interventional phase. It is also quantitative and aims to assess the impact of pharmaceutical care service on elderly patients with polypharmacy in three selected pharmacies in Ajman and Sharjah through Medication Adherence Rating Scale (MARS) questionnaire, and Short Form 36 (SF-36) questionnaire for health status, and quality of life. These two questionnaires will be filled by elderly patients first upon signing consent form, before the pharmacist intervention, and in the two interviews following the intervention. Phase four is qualitative and aims to assess the experience of the participating community pharmacists and explore their perception regarding the pharmaceutical care service through focused group discussion. Discussion: This research is the first to be conducted in United Arab Emirates. Therefore, findings will reveal the possibility and preparedness of pharmacists to perform medication review and patients' monitoring and follow up. Additionally, due to the unusual circumstances of COVID-19 pandemic, innovative ways will be used to perform such service.
... The selected studies' quality will be assessed using a risk assessment tool (Mensah KB, et al., 2018) developed and validated for quantitative cross-sectional studies. The tool assesses the study validity based on responses to these questions: ...
... As described in the review protocol [24], the methodological quality assessment tool (Additional file 2) was adopted and modified for this review due to the similarities this review shares with the study conducted by Mensah et al. [30]. The tool appraised the studies' quality based on the study sample representativeness, response rate, reliability, and validity of the data collection tool. ...
Background:
With the burden of prostate cancer, it has become imperative to exploit cost-effective ways to tackle this menace. Women have demonstrated their ability to recognize early cancer signs, and it is, therefore, relevant to include women in strategies to improve the early detection of prostate cancer. This systematic review seeks to gather evidence from studies that investigated women's knowledge about (1) the signs and symptoms, (2) causes and risk factors, and (3) the screening modalities of prostate cancer. Findings from the review will better position women in the fight against the late detection of prostate cancer.
Methods:
The convergent segregated approach to the conduct of mixed-methods systematic reviews was employed. Five databases, namely, MEDLINE (EBSCOhost), CINAHL (EBSCOhost), PsycINFO (EBSCOhost), Web of Science, and EMBASE (Ovid), were searched from January 1999 to December 2019 for studies conducted with a focus on the knowledge of women on the signs and symptoms, the causes and risk factors, and the screening modalities of prostate cancer.
Results:
Of 2201 titles and abstracts screened, 22 full-text papers were retrieved and reviewed, and 7 were included: 3 quantitative, 1 qualitative, and 3 mixed-methods studies. Both quantitative and qualitative findings indicate that women have moderate knowledge of the signs and symptoms and the causes and risk factors of prostate cancer. However, women recorded poor knowledge about prostate cancer screening modalities or tools.
Conclusions:
Moderate knowledge of women on the signs and symptoms and the causes and risk factors of prostate cancer was associated with education. These findings provide vital information for the prevention and control of prostate cancer and encourage policy-makers to incorporate health promotion and awareness campaigns in health policies to improve knowledge and awareness of prostate cancer globally.
Systematic review registration:
Open Science Framework (OSF) registration DOI: https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/BR456.
... To effectively engage in breast cancer health promotion, pharmacists should have adequate knowledge of issues related to breast cancer, positive attitudes, beliefs, and willingness to provide pharmaceutical services to patients with breast cancer [30,40,41]. Previous studies have identified considerable knowledge gaps among pharmacists with regard to breast cancer in different settings around the world [40,[42][43][44][45][46][47]. These knowledge gaps might have limited engagement of pharmacists in breast cancer health promotion [48]. ...
Abstract Background Among all cancers, breast cancer is the most prevalent cancer and the leading cause of mortality among women in developing countries including Palestine. Community pharmacists are trusted and easily accessible healthcare providers who could be engaged in breast cancer health promotion. This study was conducted with the aim of exploring knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, and barriers toward breast cancer health promotion among community pharmacists in the Palestinian territories. Methods This study was conducted in a cross-sectional design using a questionnaire among community pharmacists. Knowledge of community pharmacists of breast cancer was tested using a 26-item knowledge test. Attitudes and beliefs of the community pharmacists with regard to breast cancer promotion were explored using 14 items. Barrier to breast cancer health promotion were explored using 9 items. Results Data were collected from 200 community pharmacists. The median knowledge score was 69.2 % with and IQR of 15.2 %. Of the community pharmacists, 67.5 % scored 50 % and above in the knowledge test. Multivariate logistic regression showed that community pharmacists who were female in gender were more likely to score 50 % and above in the knowledge test compared to the community pharmacists who were male in gender (OR = 4.73, 95 % CI of 2.26–9.89). The community pharmacists had positive attitudes toward breast cancer health promotion. There was a significant moderate positive correlation between knowledge and attitudes scores (Spearman’s rho = 0.37, p-value 60.0 %). Conclusions This study shed light on the role of community pharmacists in breast cancer health promotion. Pharmacists had good knowledge of breast cancer and positive attitudes toward promoting the health of patients with breast cancer. Further studies are still needed to determine how to integrate community pharmacists in the team of healthcare providers caring for patients with breast cancer.
... On the other hand, the polypharmacy, comorbidity, aging might complicate the situation and contribute to under-prescribing (21,22). So the oncologists eagerly expect the involvement of multi-disciplinary experts especially the pharmacists to manage the tumor patients to take medications (23)(24)(25). ...
... In addition, we plan to serve more outpatients (34). Meanwhile we need more pharmacists to deal with redundant data (25,35,36). ...
Background:
Cancer has always been a serious health threat for human. Patients with cancer are at high risk of drug-related problems (DRPs) due to multi-morbidity associated polypharmacy. However, data is lacking in identifying and addressing potential DRPs in cancer patients in China. This study aims to investigate the prevalence of DRPs and evaluate the effectiveness of an independent anti-neoplastic medication therapy management (MTM) system in ambulatory cancer patients.
Methods:
This is a retrospective study. An independent anti-neoplastic MTM system in Shanghai Jiao Tong University affiliated sixth People's Hospital was established in 2018 with the collaboration of oncologists, clinical pharmacists and software engineers. The system contains an independent clinic of pharmacy and MTM software. The software consisted of six modules to help clinical pharmacists serve the tumor patients. The six modules include medication therapy review, intervention plan, personal medication record, medication-related action plan, intervention and/or referral, and documentation and follow-up.
Results:
A total of 173 eligible tumor patients visited the anti-neoplastic pharmaceutical clinic and were recorded in the independent anti-neoplastic MTM system from Jun 2018 to May 2019. The average clinic visits were 2.4 times of the study participants. Two thirds patients (117/173) had one or more identified DRPs in medication therapy review. Adverse drug reaction, potential drug interaction and non-adherence were the leading DRPs. 85.8% of DRPs could be resolved (cured or improved) in four weeks. Tumor patients showed medication adherence reached 84-100% after three or four times of follow-up and intervention.
Conclusions:
The participation of clinical pharmacists in managing polypharmacy tumor patients, with the independent anti-neoplastic MTM system, facilitated the identifying and solving DRPs, especially improving medication adherence of patients, and thus enhancing the effectiveness, safety and rational use of medication.
... The selected studies' quality will be assessed using a risk assessment tool (Mensah, Oosthuizen, & Bonsu, 2018) developed and validated for quantitative cross-sectional studies. The tool assesses the study validity based on responses to these questions: ...
Introduction
There is a lack of data summarizing the current burden of stroke in Ghana. The establishment of data on the current burden, incidence, and mortality of stroke in this country may guide decision-making toward interventions to curb the stroke burden. This protocol aims to describe the methods for a systematic review of the literature on the incidence, prevalence, and mortality of strokes in Ghana.
Methods and Design
We will perform a comprehensive search strategy of relevant abstracts and articles published from 1st May 2013 to 31st May 2020, related to prevalence or incidence or mortality in Ghana. Relevant articles will be searched from electronic databases including MEDLINE (PubMed), CINAHL (EBSCO), Web of Science, and PsycINFO (EBSCOhost). Full text of eligible studies will be included if they estimated one of the following epidemiological measures: burden, incidence and mortality. Studies that will meet the eligibility criteria will be assess for overall study quality, reliability and risk of bias, using design-specific criteria. We will appraise the included studies' reporting and methodology quality and perform a quantitative summary of reported outcomes where applicable.
Discussion
Existing knowledge on the incidence or prevalence, or mortality of strokes in Ghana are limited. This review aims to present relevant information that will inform local policy on cardiovascular diseases and future research. The final report of this protocol, in the form of a scientific paper, will be published in a peer-reviewed journal and findings will be submitted to relevant health authorities. We also plan to update the review in the future to monitor changes and guide health service and policy solutions.
Trial registration number: https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/MW3H8
... As described in the review protocol (24), the methodological quality assessment tool (Appendix 3) was adopted and modi ed for this review (25). The tool appraised the studies' quality based on the studies sample representativeness, response rate, reliability, and validity of the data collection tool. ...
Background: With the burden of prostate cancer, it has become imperative to exploit cost-effective ways to tackle this menace. Women have demonstrated their ability to recognize early cancer signs and it is therefore relevant to include women in strategies to improve the early detection of prostate cancer. This systematic review seeks to gather evidence from studies that investigated women’s knowledge about; (1) the signs and symptoms, (2) causes and risk factors, and (3) the screening modalities of prostate cancer. Findings from the review will better position women in the fight against the late detection of prostate cancer.
Methods: The convergent segregated approach to the conduct of mixed-methods systematic reviews was employed. Five databases namely; MEDLINE (EBSCOhost), CINAHL (EBSCOhost), PsycINFO (EBSCOhost), Web of Science, and EMBASE (Ovid) were searched from January 1999 to December 2019 for studies conducted with a focus on the knowledge of women on the signs and symptoms; the causes and risk factors; and the screening modalities of prostate cancer.
Results: Of 2201 titles and abstracts screened, 22 full-text papers were retrieved and reviewed, and 7 were included: 3 quantitative, 1 qualitative, and 3 mixed-methods studies. Both quantitative and qualitative findings indicate that women have moderate knowledge of the signs and symptoms; and the causes and risk factors of prostate cancer. However, women recorded poor knowledge about prostate cancer screening modalities or tools.
Conclusions: Moderate knowledge of women on the signs and symptoms, and the causes and risk factors of prostate cancer were associated with education. These findings provide vital information for the prevention and control of prostate cancer and encourage policy-makers to incorporate health promotion and awareness campaigns in health policies to improve knowledge and awareness of prostate cancer globally.
Systematic Review registration number: Open Science Framework (OSF) registration DOI: https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/BR456
