Community education about cancer.
Telling people what they should do to guard against cancer does not necessarily produce the desired changes in attitude and behaviour. It is necessary to take account of the factors that obstruct these changes. Fear of cancer induces some people to employ psychological defences that might relieve their anxiety, but divert them from medical care. General practitioners can either "turn on" or "turn off" the community education process by the stance they adopt towards the recommendations made in educational programmes. Failur to sensitively appraise the patient's motives and feeling when seeking advice about a publicized cancer "warning sign" can both hurt the patient deter him from developing habits of early reporting. Preventive programmes of cervical cytology, instruction in breast self-examination and smoking advice can quite readily be initiated in general practice. The various media of communication in cancer education should be carefully selected and targeted. Since doctors are generally accepted as experts on health matters, their apparent undue pessimism about cancer prognosis is unfortunate. On the other hand, their low smoking rate sets a helathy example for patients to follow.
D001294:Attitude to Health; D001296:Audiovisual Aids; D003142:Communication; D003674:Defense Mechanisms; D005239:Fear; D005260:Female; D006266:Health Education; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000517:prevention & control*; D010821:Physicians, Family