Department of Pharmacy Practice, Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, 260806Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana.
72753University of KwaZulu-Natal, Discipline of Pharmaceutical Sciences, College of Health Sciences, South Africa.
J Oncol Pharm Pract. 2022 Dec;28(8):1771-1780. doi: 10.1177/10781552211041977. Epub 2021 Sep 27.
Community pharmacists may play a vital role in early detection and prevention of cancer. Findings from our pre-assessment studies showed that the Ghanaian community have inadequate knowledge of cancer. We assessed the impact of a brief educational intervention on knowledge level of cancer among Ghanaian community pharmacists.
The study was a descriptive interventional study. Knowledge of cancer, signs and symptoms, risk factors and cancer screening tests were assessed before in a pre-assessment study and after a brief online education in our current study. A total of 435 community pharmacists were recruited in both studies.
The mean ± SD total knowledge score of cancer increased from 9.03 ± 2.65 to 12.97 ± 1.43 out of a maximum score of 15 points. The mean ± SD total knowledge score of signs and symptoms of cancer increased from 4.15 ± 2.14 to 6.86 ± 0.76 out of a maximum score of 7 points. For the total knowledge score of causes and risk factors of cancer, the mean ± SD score increased from 8.13 ± 3.31 to 11.59 ± 0.87 out of a maximum score of 12 points. Lastly, the mean ± SD total knowledge score of cancer screening tests increased from 9.04 ± 5.01 to 16.39 ± 0.86 out of a maximum score of 18 points.
There were overall statistically significant improvements of participants knowledge in all aspects of cancer in this study compared to the pre-assessment study. Our study presents evidence of the effectiveness of a brief educational intervention tailor-made for Ghanaian community pharmacists.
社区药剂师在癌症的早期发现和预防方面可能发挥着至关重要的作用。我们之前的评估研究结果表明，加纳社区对癌症的了解不足。我们评估了简短的教育干预对加纳社区药剂师癌症知识水平的影响。
这项研究是一项描述性的干预研究。在我们的当前研究中，在预评估研究中评估了癌症、癌症的症状和体征、危险因素和癌症筛查测试的知识，然后在简短的在线教育之后进行了评估。在这两项研究中，共有 435 名社区药剂师被招募。
癌症的总分从 9.03±2.65 增加到 12.97±1.43，满分 15 分。癌症症状和体征的总分从 4.15±2.14 增加到 6.86±0.76，满分 7 分。对于癌症原因和危险因素的总分，平均分数从 8.13±3.31 增加到 11.59±0.87，满分 12 分。最后，癌症筛查测试的总分从 9.04±5.01 增加到 16.39±0.86，满分 18 分。
与预评估研究相比，本研究中参与者在癌症各个方面的知识总体上都有显著提高。我们的研究为针对加纳社区药剂师的简短教育干预的有效性提供了证据。
