Racial differences pertaining to a belief about lung cancer surgery: results of a multicenter survey

Article Abstract:

Background: Patients at the Philadelphia Veterans Affairs Medical Center frequently voice concern that air exposure during lung cancer surgery might cause tumor spread. Several African-American patients asserted that this belief was common in the African-American community. Objective: To assess the prevalence of the belief that air exposure during lung cancer surgery might cause tumor spread and gauge the influence of this belief on the willingness of African-American and white patients to have lung cancer surgery. Design: Prospective questionnaire survey. Setting: Philadelphia Veterans Affairs Medical Center and University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Los Angeles Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Los Angeles, California; and Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, South Carolina. Patients: 626 consecutive patients in pulmonary and lung cancer clinics. Measurements: None. Results: 38% of patients (61% of whom were African American and 29% of whom were white) stated that they believe air exposure at surgery causes tumor spread. The most significant predictor of belief was African-American race (odds ratio, 3.5 [95% CI, 1.9 to 6.5]), even after controlling for other relevant variables in a multivariable analysis. Nineteen percent of African Americans state that this belief was a reason for opposing surgery, and 14% would not accept their physicians' assertion that the belief is false. These rates were also statistically significantly higher among African-American than white patients. Conclusions: Belief in accelerated tumor spread at surgery is prevalent among general pulmonary outpatients and lung cancer clinic patients facing lung surgery, particularly among African-American patients. Our findings may pertain to key racial disparities in lung cancer surgery and survival rates and suggest that culturally sensitive physician training or outreach programs directed at disparate beliefs and attitudes may help to address racial discrepancies in health care outcomes.

United States, Public affairs, African Americans, Beliefs, opinions and attitudes, Public opinion, Lung cancer, Lung surgery, Author Abstract

---

Cultural competence: essential measurements of quality for managed care organizations

Article Abstract:

Managed care organizations need to address variations in the cultures that they serve when allocating funds for their participants and when evaluating the quality of their medical care. Different cultures place different value on aspects of their health and healing. Managed care organizations need to be sensitive to these variations in values when allocating funds to specific interventions and when evaluating treatment success. Certain diseases are more common in certain ethnic populations and funds need to be allocated accordingly when there is a high proportion of these populations among the group's participants. Drugs may also be more effective in certain ethnic groups than others. Therefore, managed care organizations need to be aware of these variations when establishing drug treatment guidelines for their participants.

Health aspects, Editorial, Services, Managed care plans (Medical care), Ethnic groups

---

Similar abstracts:

• Abstracts: The Patient Self-Determination Act and the future of advance directives. Cost effectiveness of low-dose zidovudine therapy for asymptomatic patients with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection
• Abstracts: A systematic inquiry into recollections of childhood experience and their relationship to adult defence mechanisms
• Abstracts: Caregiver burden and unmet patient needs. Introduction to the workshop on clinical trials
• Abstracts: Nonbarrier contraceptives and vaginitis and vaginosis. Effects of smoking on prostacyclin formation and platelet aggregation in users of oral contraceptives
• Abstracts: Inotropic therapy for heart failure - an unfulfilled promise. Diet pills redux

This website is not affiliated with document authors or copyright owners. This page is provided for informational purposes only. Unintentional errors are possible.