Predictors of Cancer Awareness among Older Adult Individuals in Jordan

Abstract

Background: Older age is associated with an increase in the incidence of cancer cases. Diagnosis and treatment of cancer in older adults can be stressful because of health decline related to age, comorbidities and inadequate treatment for pain and other symptoms of the disease. This survey is one of the unique studies in Jordan and in the Arab world that aimed at exploring the predictors of older adult individuals awareness towards cancer. Materials and Methods: A stratified random sampling technique was followed to reach a representative sample of 753 participants. The questionnaire of the study consisted of parts regarding demographic variables, awareness about screening tests, and signs and symptoms of cancer. In addition, specific questions related to factors linked to cancer were included. Cross-sectional design was adopted with face-to-face interviews at the interviewees' households. Results: The mean age of the participants was about 63 years; around 44% of them are above the age of 65 years. 'Being convinced that having no health problem makes the individual feel safe and not at risk of getting cancer' was the major reason for not doing a routine health check-up. Conclusions: The low levels of awareness about cancer, as well as the low use of the screening methods were crucial outcomes of this study. Thus, raising the awareness among health care providers and policy makers in the country about older adults' perception of cancer is a high priority.

Knowledge and Perceptions about Colorectal Cancer in Jordan

“…The low knowledge was not significantly associated with the participant's sex. These results are consistent with the results of Omran et al (2015) and Ahmad and Al-Gamal (2014) which showed a low awareness level about CRC in Jordan and a need for public education about CRC risk factors, signs and symptoms. In that study, only 22 % of participants correctly ranked CRC as the commonest cause of cancer related deaths in Jordan.…”

“…Only 27% correctly judged their life time risk while 5% overestimated their risk. In a study by Ahmad and Al-Gamal (2014) that assessed the older Jordanians knowledge about cancer, it was found that the belief of having no health problem made the participants feel safe and not at risk of getting cancer and that was the major reason for not doing routine health check-up.…”

Tool Development to Assess Nausea and Vomiting Among Patients Receiving Chemotherapy

“…Unlike vasculature within the blood-brain diffusion barrier, the area postrema is highly vascularized with fenestrated blood vessels, which lack tight junctions between capillary endothelial cells. The CTZ is anatomically specialized to readily sample elements present in the circulating blood and cerebrospinal fluid [15,16] .…”

“…Explicating the objectives: The second step in developing a tool is explicating the objective. The behavioral objectives of the tool are stated by using Tyler and Kibler's approach, where the objective is composed of three components: (1) a description of the respondents; (2) delineation of the kind of behavior the respondent will exhibit to demonstrate accomplishment of the objective; and (3) a statement of the kind of content to which behavior relates [16,17] . The objective of this tool is to measure three kinds of nausea and vomiting (anticipatory, acute, and delayed) for patients with cancer receiving chemotherapy.…”

“…There was agreement about 21 items that are quite/very relevant, and 3 items somewhat relevant (items asking about the duration of nausea). The Content Validity Index (CVI) is defined as the proportion of items given a rating of quite relevant /very relevant by both raters involved [16] . The results are displayed in Table 2.…”