Ahmad Maham, Saeed Sabrina, Olamiju Brianna, Silber Andrea, Leventhal Jonathan
Department of Dermatology, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT.
Yale Cancer Center, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT.
Int J Womens Dermatol. 2023 Jan 30;9(1):e073. doi: 10.1097/JW9.0000000000000073. eCollection 2023 Mar.
Minority patients are more likely to require dose adjustments for chemotherapy, with cultural barriers and access to medical care cited as contributory factors.
We sought to pilot an educational intervention, in the form of a pamphlet, to evaluate the effectiveness of this tool in teaching skin of color (SoC) patients about potential dermatologic toxicities of chemotherapy that are relevant to their skin type.
At a chemotherapy infusion center, SoC patients ( = 26) who were receiving chemotherapy for breast cancer voluntarily consented to read an educational pamphlet and complete a series of survey questions before and after this educational intervention.
Most participants identified as female (96%), African American/Black (81%), and non-Hispanic (85%); all respondents had obtained at least a high school degree. Survey responses revealed a significant increase in knowledge about the potential dermatologic effects of cancer treatment after this intervention. Notably, 100% of participants either agreed or strongly agreed that they would like to see other doctors use this educational tool as a form of patient education, that they would recommend this pamphlet to other patients who are starting cancer treatment, and that the pamphlet was easy to understand.
Limitations of this study include small sample size and single-institution recruitment, which may limit generalizability. Furthermore, this study only included patients who are proficient in English.
This study pilots an effective educational tool that addresses dermatologic toxicities of chemotherapy that are relevant to SoC patients. Further multi-institutional studies with larger sample sizes and translation to other languages can overcome the limitations of this pilot study.
少数族裔患者更有可能需要调整化疗剂量，文化障碍和获得医疗服务的机会被认为是促成因素。
我们试图以小册子的形式试行一种教育干预措施，以评估该工具在向有色人种皮肤（SoC）患者传授与他们皮肤类型相关的化疗潜在皮肤毒性方面的有效性。
在一个化疗输液中心，接受乳腺癌化疗的SoC患者（n = 26）自愿同意阅读一本教育小册子，并在这次教育干预前后完成一系列调查问卷。
大多数参与者为女性（96%）、非裔美国人/黑人（81%）和非西班牙裔（85%）；所有受访者至少拥有高中学历。调查回复显示，在这次干预后，关于癌症治疗潜在皮肤影响的知识有显著增加。值得注意的是，100%的参与者要么同意要么强烈同意他们希望看到其他医生将这种教育工具用作患者教育的一种形式，他们会向其他开始癌症治疗的患者推荐这本小册子，并且这本小册子易于理解。
本研究的局限性包括样本量小和单机构招募，这可能会限制普遍性。此外，本研究仅纳入了精通英语的患者。
本研究试行一种有效的教育工具，该工具涉及与SoC患者相关的化疗皮肤毒性。进一步的多机构研究，采用更大的样本量并翻译成其他语言，可以克服本试点研究的局限性。
