Kahan E, El-Najjr K

Language: Spanish
References: 24
Page: 49-60
PDF size: 122.87 Kb.

ABSTRACT

Background: Primary care physicians’ identification of practice-related barriers to cancer screening is essential to the success of screening programs. The purpose of the present paper was to study primary care physicians’ perceived barriers to cancer prevention and control. Methods: Cross-sectional questionnaire survey in Israel and the Palestinian Authority. This study was done under the auspices of The Middle East Cancer Consortium. A 9-part questionnaire on barriers to cancer prevention was distributed to 264 randomly selected family physicians, 144 in Israel and 120 in the Palestinian Authority. Sample size was determined according to the formula, n =Z2/1–alpha/2P(1-P)/d². Results: Response rates were 79.2% and 90.0% in the Israeli and Palestinian groups, respectively. Both populations detect similar barriers, although more Palestinians believed that their “practice of cancer screening is inhibited by lack of resources [in general] and equipment [in particular]” (p ‹ 0.001). Both also showed a high level of agreement with the statements, “It is difficult to practice preventive medicine for cancer,” and “A yearly health examination is important for the early detection of cancer,” and a similar intermediate level of agreement with the statement, “I often forget to indicate/perform screening tests for cancer on my asymptomatic patients,” and “Periodic physical examination of every asymptomatic patient is unnecessary”. Conclusions: The persistent gaps in many areas of cancer screening call for extensive programs in physician and patient education, in addition to targeted allocation of resources, dissemination of guidelines, and an increase in accessibility. These findings may have heuristic value for other ethnic, cultural, or geographic populations.

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