Results of a Community Pharmacy-Based Breast Cancer Risk-Assessment and Education Program

We tested the hypothesis that an education program addressing breast cancer screening schedules and modalities coupled with a breast cancer risk assessment provided by community pharmacists can increase women's confidence in performing screening practices endorsed by the American Cancer Society...

Full description

Saved in:

Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Pharmacotherapy Vol. 21; no. 2; pp. 243 - 253
Main Authors:	Giles, Joel T., Kennedy, Daniel T., Dunn, Erin C., Wallace, Whitney L., Meadows, Stephanie L., Cafiero, Angela C.
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	Oxford, UK Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01-02-2001 Pharmacotherapy
Subjects:	Adolescent Adult Biological and medical sciences Breast Neoplasms - diagnosis Breast Neoplasms - prevention & control Breast Self-Examination - methods Community Pharmacy Services - organization & administration Female Follow-Up Studies Gynecology. Andrology. Obstetrics Humans Logistic Models Mammary gland diseases Medical sciences Middle Aged Patient Education as Topic - methods Pharmacists Prevention and actions Public health. Hygiene Public health. Hygiene-occupational medicine Risk Assessment Specific populations (family, woman, child, elderly...) Statistics, Nonparametric Tumors Human Mammary gland diseases Sanitary program Health staff Chemist Female Mammary gland Drugstore Malignant tumor Medical screening Health education Public health
Online Access:	Get full text
Tags:	Add Tag No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!

Description
Summary:	We tested the hypothesis that an education program addressing breast cancer screening schedules and modalities coupled with a breast cancer risk assessment provided by community pharmacists can increase women's confidence in performing screening practices endorsed by the American Cancer Society (ACS). This randomized, paired, pre‐post study was conducted in six community pharmacies and two health‐screening fairs; subjects were 140 women over 18 years of age. The pharmacist‐administered program used the Breast Cancer Risk‐Assessment Tool (Gail model) software provided by the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health. In addition, pharmacists provided education and training on breast self‐examination (BSE), clinical breast examination (CBE), and mammography. Adherence to ACS guidelines for monthly BSE increased from 31% to 56% (p<0.001) for all women 6 months after the program. Performance of monthly BSE by women considered at high risk for developing breast cancer increased from 20% to 60% (p<0.005). The mean number of BSEs performed over 6 months increased from 2.69 to 4.09 (p<0.001). Women's confidence performing correct BSE improved from 6.41 to 7.04 (p<0.001) on a scale of 0–10. Adherence to ACS guidelines for CBE and mammography did not reveal statistically significant improvements except for better adherence to CBE in women aged 40–49 years (81% to 97%, p<0.025). The strength of the pharmacists' intervention may not appear as manipulation of high‐risk patients' behavior but as improvement of self‐directed behaviors, such as BSE, across all age groups.
Bibliography:	istex:043163839F1D63F9731466CBB20246E295FC058B ArticleID:PHAR869 ark:/67375/WNG-24H68QPS-D ObjectType-Article-2 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-1 ObjectType-News-3 content type line 23
ISSN:	0277-0008 1875-9114
DOI:	10.1592/phco.21.2.243.34100