Relationship of knowledge of psychosocial issues about cancer with psychic distress and adjustment among breast cancer clinic attendees in a Nigerian teaching hospital.

OBJECTIVES: The diagnosis of breast cancer prompts emotional reactions, which predispose to psychosocial problems and poor adjustment. Assessment of the psychosocial issues could help articulation of specific interventions. There is paucity of data on psychosocial issues in breast cancer from Nigeria. We assessed knowledge of psychosocial issues about breast cancer and its association with psychic distress and adjustment among women attending a Nigerian teaching hospital. METHODS: We used a descriptive survey design to assess 63 consecutive clinic attendees (mean age: 49.9, SD: 10.5) who met the eligibility criteria. Data were obtained using the following: a 15-item self-report validated psychosocial needs questionnaire, General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) and 10-item adjustment scale. RESULTS: Majority (63.4%) indicated they did not know much about the nature of breast cancer. The greatest area of worry was related to fear of death (81.0%). Knowledge about management of breast cancer was significantly inversely correlated with psychic distress (p<0.03). High psychic distress was significantly related to psychosocial concerns (p<0.01), and inversely correlated with adjustment (p<0.001).The most important predictor of psychic distress and adjustment was their fear about how people reacted to them. CONCLUSIONS: The findings support previous reports indicating that psychosocial concerns are associated with psychic distress and poor adjustment in breast cancer. Accordingly, a regular psycho-oncology service should include counseling on improved prognosis in cancer with early patronage of modern treatments, to allay fear of death; while public health education on social stigma should address fear of negative reactions from people.

Effects of school health nursing education interventions on HIV/AIDS-related attitudes of students in Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria.

PURPOSE: One of the greatest challenges facing school nurses is that of identifying and using appropriate strategies to meet the health education needs of adolescents in regard to prevention of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS). This study examined the effects of HIV/AIDS preventive health education with parental involvement on students' attitude toward HIV/AIDS prevention in Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria. METHODS: The study population comprised students from three of nine secondary schools in the study area. The three schools were randomly assigned as Intervention Group 1 (IG1), involving nurses only; Intervention Group 2 (IG2), involving both nurses and parents (IG2); and a control group. A pretest/post-test intervention design was used. A 29-item, validated questionnaire was the instrument for data collection. Sampling involved multistage and stratified random technique to select 120 subjects from each of the three selected schools, with a total of 360 subjects representing 8.3% of the study population. From this number, 339 (94.2%) provided sufficient data for analysis. Data analysis involved analysis of covariance and the Scheffé post hoc test determined at the .05 significance level. RESULTS: Results show significant effect of intervention on students attitudes toward preventive measures (F = 234.27, p < .001 *). The intervention that involved nurses only was found to be a more potent strategy in providing favorable attitudes toward HIV/AIDS prevention (IG1 mean, 20.59; IG2 mean, 19.20; control mean, 12.34). Attitudes were influenced by older age but not by gender. CONCLUSION: Health education efforts aimed at improving HIV/AIDS-related attitudes should not only focus on children but also on parents so that they in turn could assist to improve on health workers' efforts in educating the children.