Guven Deniz Can, Sahin Taha Koray, Aktepe Oktay Halit, Yildirim Hasan Cagri, Aksoy Sercan, Kilickap Saadettin
Department of Medical Oncology, Hacettepe University Cancer Institute, Ankara, Turkey.
Front Oncol. 2020 Aug 28;10:1553. doi: 10.3389/fonc.2020.01553. eCollection 2020.
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is expected to significantly affect cancer patients due to adverse outcomes with COVID-19 and disruptions in cancer care. Another important point is the stress and anxiety burden of COVID-19, which could affect quality of life. Patient education is vital due to the vulnerability of the topic to disinformation. To determine the areas needing improvements in patient education, and coping with stress, the burden of the problem should be pictured. From this point, we aimed to assess the perspectives and fears of cancer patients about COVID-19 with resources of COVID-19 knowledge with a questionnaire. A total of 250 adult cancer patients applied to the outpatient chemotherapy unit of Hacettepe University Cancer Center between May 27, 2020, and June 9, 2020, invited to answer a questionnaire of 13 multiple-choice questions with a return rate of 78% (195/250). Most patients acquired their knowledge about COVID-19 from television (91.9%). Social media were the second most common source of knowledge (43.8%) with a predilection in younger patients, nonsmokers, targeted therapy- or immunotherapy-treated patients, and breast cancer patients (>65 vs. <65 years of age, = 0.057; nonsmoker vs. ever-smoker, = 0.036; targeted therapy and immunotherapy vs. chemotherapy, = 0.004; breast cancer vs. other cancers, = 0.019). The percentage of patients seeing the information about COVID-19 as adequate (38.9%) or inadequate (35.1%) was similar. More than 90% of the patients had a moderate to severe degree of COVID-19 fear. In addition, 27.6% of patients had false knowledge of glove using as a protective measure for COVID-19. More than half of the patients had another wrong knowledge as the need for the supplements for COVID-19 protection. A significant percentage of patients (84.7%) expected some level of disruption in oncological care with the expectation of a moderate-to-severe disruption was more common in the advanced-stage patients ( = 0.026). In our experience, most cancer patients had a significant degree of fear about both infecting COVID-19 and the disruption of cancer care by COVID-19. A significant amount of our patients had wrong information about the protection necessities, which denotes the need for better patient education about COVID-19.
2019冠状病毒病（COVID-19）预计会因COVID-19的不良后果以及癌症护理的中断而对癌症患者产生重大影响。另一个重要问题是COVID-19带来的压力和焦虑负担，这可能会影响生活质量。由于该主题容易出现虚假信息，患者教育至关重要。为了确定患者教育以及应对压力方面需要改进的领域，应该描绘出问题的负担情况。从这一点出发，我们旨在通过一份问卷，利用COVID-19知识资源评估癌症患者对COVID-19的看法和恐惧。2020年5月27日至2020年6月9日期间，共有250名成年癌症患者前往哈杰泰佩大学癌症中心门诊化疗科就诊，他们被邀请回答一份包含13个多项选择题的问卷，问卷回收率为78%（195/250）。大多数患者通过电视获取有关COVID-19的知识（91.9%）。社交媒体是第二常见的知识来源（43.8%），在年轻患者、不吸烟者、接受靶向治疗或免疫治疗的患者以及乳腺癌患者中更受青睐（>65岁与<65岁，P = 0.057；不吸烟者与曾经吸烟者，P = 0.036；靶向治疗和免疫治疗与化疗，P = 0.004；乳腺癌与其他癌症，P = 0.019）。认为关于COVID-19的信息充足（38.9%）或不足（35.1%）的患者比例相近。超过90%的患者对COVID-19有中度至重度恐惧。此外，27.6%的患者对手套作为COVID-19防护措施存在错误认知。超过一半的患者还有另一个错误认知，即认为需要补充剂来预防COVID-19。相当比例的患者（84.7%）预计肿瘤护理会受到一定程度的干扰，晚期患者中预计会有中度至重度干扰的情况更为常见（P = 0.026）。根据我们的经验，大多数癌症患者对感染COVID-19以及COVID-19对癌症护理的干扰都有显著程度的恐惧。我们的大量患者对防护必要性存在错误信息，这表明需要对COVID-19进行更好的患者教育。
