The impact of a cancer education program on the knowledge base of participating students.
BACKGROUND
Partners in Research is a ten-week summer elective designed to provide cancer-related educational activities. This study was undertaken to evaluate the impact of the program on the general cancer knowledge of medical students, pharmacy students, and undergraduate biology majors.


METHODS
The 24 students enrolled in 1999 were evaluated using a pretest and post-test with 75 multiple-choice questions.


RESULTS
The mean test score increased significantly from 46.6% to 53.0% (p = 0.001). Improvements were significant for general cancer knowledge and three specific disease categories (breast, gastrointestinal, and skin cancers).


CONCLUSIONS
The results indicate that the program does increase the cancer-related knowledge of students.
Jazieh
A R
AR
University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Division of Hematology and Oncology, Little Rock 72205, USA. jaziehabdulr@exchange.uams.edu
Henle
K
K
Deloney
L A
LA
Savidge
M
M
Fulper-Smith
M
M
Nicholas
R
R
D002983:Clinical Competence; D004493:Education; D004501:Education, Medical; D004512:Education, Pharmacy; D004516:Education, Premedical; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009369:Neoplasms; D015397:Program Evaluation; D013334:Students