Lank Center for Genitourinary Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
Cancer. 2024 Oct 15;130 Suppl 20:3602-3611. doi: 10.1002/cncr.35498. Epub 2024 Sep 10.
Poor comprehension of prostate cancer (PCa) medical terms can create barriers to PCa treatment discussions. The authors measured comprehension of PCa terms and its relationship to health literacy in a group of Black men who were newly diagnosed with PCa. They examined whether tailoring communication with alternative colloquial words would be helpful and acceptable.
Patients were recruited from urology clinics (N = 152). After they met with their providers to discuss PCa treatment options, they participated in an educational supplement delivered as a structured interview. The supplement tailored PCa treatment information by allowing men to choose between colloquial and medical terms for genitourinary (GU) function. Health literacy was measured using the Rapid Estimate of Adult Literacy in Medicine, and comprehension of common PCa terms was assessed using published methods. Pearson correlation was used to estimate the association between health literacy and comprehension of PCa terms. Spearman rank correlation (r) was used to assess the relation between the total number of medical terms preferred (range, 0-10) and Rapid Estimate of Adult Literacy in Medicine scores (range, 0-66).
Most patients (62%) had low health literacy, which was strongly correlated with their understanding of PCa terms (r = 0.526; p < .001). Poor comprehension of many PCa terms established the need to use alternative language for GU function (only 20% knew the word incontinence). There was a statistically significant positive association between the number of medical terms preferred and health literacy (r = 0.358; p < .001). A majority of patients (91%) preferred a mixture of medical and colloquial terms.
Tailoring communications with colloquial terms for GU function was preferred by most patients regardless of health literacy.
对前列腺癌 (PCa) 医学术语理解能力差可能会成为 PCa 治疗讨论的障碍。作者在一组新诊断为 PCa 的黑人男性中测量了对 PCa 术语的理解及其与健康素养的关系。他们研究了用替代的俗语来调整沟通是否会有帮助和被接受。
从泌尿科诊所招募患者（N=152）。在与他们的医生讨论 PCa 治疗方案后，他们参加了一个结构化访谈形式的教育补充课程。该补充课程通过允许男性选择俗语和医学术语来调整 PCa 治疗信息，以用于泌尿生殖系统 (GU) 功能。使用成人医学阅读快速估计 (Rapid Estimate of Adult Literacy in Medicine) 来衡量健康素养，使用已发表的方法评估对常见 PCa 术语的理解。使用 Pearson 相关系数来估计健康素养与对 PCa 术语的理解之间的关联。使用 Spearman 秩相关系数 (r) 来评估选择的医学术语总数 (范围为 0-10) 与成人医学阅读快速估计 (Rapid Estimate of Adult Literacy in Medicine) 得分 (范围为 0-66) 之间的关系。
大多数患者（62%）的健康素养较低，这与他们对 PCa 术语的理解能力密切相关 (r=0.526；p<0.001)。对许多 PCa 术语的理解能力差表明需要使用替代语言来描述 GU 功能（只有 20%的人知道失禁这个词）。选择的医学术语数量与健康素养之间存在显著的正相关关系 (r=0.358；p<0.001)。大多数患者（91%）更喜欢使用医学术语和俗语的混合术语。
无论健康素养如何，大多数患者都更喜欢使用俗语来调整 GU 功能方面的沟通。
