Attitudes towards cancer. Development of the cancer attitudes questionnaire

Abstract

A questionnaire evaluating attitudes towards cancer (the Cancer Attitudes Questionnaire) was constructed to compare the attitudes of first‐year medical students before and after taking a clinical oncology program with those of students who did not participate in the program. A factor and reliability analysis revealed five underlying factors that explained 42% of the variance and reliabilities ranging from 0.55 to 0.79. An analysis of covariance revealed that students who participated in the clinical oncology program were more positively predisposed toward the outpatient functioning of cancer patients (P < 0.04) at the conclusion of the year than students who did not take the course; the participating students were also somewhat less pessimistic toward the disease (P < 0.07). Women (regardless of whether they had taken the course) assigned significantly greater importance to the patient's and family's attitudes in relation to outcome of disease (P = 0.03) than did male students. It appears that an early medical educational oncology experience emphasizing contact with ambulatory cancer patients can apprecibly alter the attitudes of first‐year medical students towards cancer.

Causal attribution and hiring recommendations for disabled job applicants.

“…Disability type only had a statistically discernable negative impact on the recommendation to hire the applicant with cancer. This finding is consistent with other studies (see Lebovits et al, 1984) reporting negative and pessimistic attitudes expressed toward people with cancer even though medical techniques for its detection and treatment are constantly improving. Perhaps the applicant with colon cancer was seen as a poor choice for the alleged position because of fatalistic stereotypes associated with this condition.…”

An innovation in curriculum content and delivery of cancer education within undergraduate nurse training in the UK. What impact does this have on the knowledge, attitudes and confidence in delivering cancer care?

“…Educational initiatives that have sought to strengthen the focus and delivery of cancer care for undergraduate nurse education have not previously been able to demonstrate an improvement in positive attitudes (Komprood, 2013). The only studies we found in this area were conducted in the USA 30 years ago with medical students and indicated that attitudes can be positively influenced when medical students participated in specific oncology courses (Blanchard et al, 1981;Lebovits et al, 1984). This current study is the first to demonstrate such a finding in undergraduate nursing students.…”

Nursing Student Perceptions and Attitudes Toward Patients With Cancer After Education and Mentoring: Integrative Review

“…A dissertation that was a quantitative study by Burns [17] was reviewed as this initial research has been used as a tool to measure knowledge and attitudes toward cancer. Two tools by Burns [17] and Haley [18] were used in subsequent studies [3,[17][18][19][20][21][22].…”