Research in cancer patient education and compliance.

Abstract

A study design has been presented which has the advantage of combining the research questions of education program evaluation and patient compliance. While it would be possible to evaluate education programs in other ways (e.g., using a sample of all program participants rather than a sample of all patients for whom a regimen was recommended), such an alternative design would not assess the potentially significant proportion of noncompliance which might occur when the regimen recommendation is made. It is the specification of inception cohorts as the study population that allows the accrual of more complete compliance data for the regimen as well as evaluation data for the education program. Given the recognized need for data on the compliance of cancer patients, the added cost of specifying inception cohorts for education program evaluations seems small. The proposed research design has the potential to contribute to cancer control programs: 1. a careful evaluation of new education programs for patients; 2. modifications of education programs based on feedback from professionals and patients during the initial implementation; 3. needed data on cancer patient compliance with extended detection and treatment regimens; and 4. increased understanding of the process of patient compliance, including identification of key variables in the health belief model which account for compliance among cancer patients.