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The MSAS-SF-SC demonstrated good psychometric properties and is culturally adapted. The instrument could be a valuable tool for Chinese health care professionals and researchers.

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Background: Peripherally inserted central catheters (PICCs) and totally implanted vascular access ports (PORTs) have been widely used for medium- to long-term chemotherapy. PICCs are associated with lower insertion cost, but higher complication rates than PORTs. However, there is a paucity of cost-effectiveness comparisons between the devices. We aimed to compare the cost-effectiveness of PICCs and PORTs for medium- to long-term chemotherapy from catheter insertion to removal. Methods: A cost-effectiveness analysis was conducted based on propensity score matching (PSM) from the hospital perspective. Data were collected from a retrospective cohort study. The total cost outcome comprised insertion, maintenance, removal and complication costs. The effectiveness outcome was the complication-free rate. The primary and supplemental outcomes were cost-effectiveness ratios (CERs) and incremental cost-effectiveness ratios (ICERs). Results: A total of 1050 patients (after PSM for 417 patients) were included. The average total cost for 3–6 month ($603.55 ± 78.68 vs $1270.21 ± 128.84), 6–9 month ($731.40 ± 42.97 vs $1414.48 ± 155.43), and 9–12 month ($966.83 ± 53.78 vs $1587.76 ± 160.56) dwell times were all significantly lower for PICCs than for PORTs ( p < 0.001). PICCs were associated with significantly lower complication-free rates than PORTs during the 3–6 month (65.22% vs 90.58%, p < 0.001), 6–9 month (53.33% vs 91.80%, p < 0.001), and 9–12 month (44.44% vs 88.46%, p = 0.015) dwell times. Ultimately, PICCs were associated with lower CERs than PORTs for the 3–6 month (928.54 vs 1395.84) and 6–9 month (1380.00 vs 1537.48) but higher CER for the 9–12 month (2197.34 vs 1804.27) dwell times. ICERs were 2564.08 and 1751.49 with dwell times of 3–6 months and 6–9 months, respectively. Conclusion: This study provided economic evidence that informs vascular access device choice for medium- to long-term chemotherapy. For 3–9 month dwell times, PICCs were more cost-effective than PORTs. Furthermore, ICERs were applied and the choice was determined by willingness-to-pay. For 9–12 month dwell times, PORTs might be more cost-effective than PICCs, and studies with larger sample size would be needed to verify this finding in the future.

Objective: This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of an information support program on the self-efficacy (SE) of prostate cancer (PCa) patients receiving hormonal therapy (HT). Methods: Based on the information support program constructed in a previous study, a randomized controlled trial was conducted in a cancer hospital in Shanghai, China. One hundred subjects were randomly divided into two groups. The control group was provided routine care and communication, and the experimental group participated in an informational support program. Three months later, the following outcomes were compared between the two groups: information acquisition, disease knowledge mastery, SE, healthy behavior adherence, health-related quality of life (HRQoL), and serum prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels. t -test and Wilcoxon rank-sum test were used to compare the differences between the two groups, and intention-to-treat analysis was used to increase the reliability of the results. Results: After the intervention, information acquisition, disease knowledge mastery, and the SE and healthy behavior adherence of the experimental group were significantly increased compared with the control group, whereas the HRQoL and PSA did not significantly differ from that observed in the control group. Conclusions: The results showed that information support programs improve information acquisition, disease knowledge mastery, SE, and healthy behavior adherence among PCa patients receiving HT.