title: Modifying cancer patients' attitudes towards medical care received in the oncology service.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Attitude changing involves a holistic change on individual biopsychosocial structure. That attitude is understood by behaviors, thoughts, feelings and higher mental processes involved with behavior. This attitude will be considered in two ways: favorable or unfavorable, through a part of the environment. If unfavorable, the most common way to change it is through teaching and learning processes. The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of a program directed to modify cancer patients' attitudes.
  
  
  METHODS
  This study was performed in three stages from February to September 2009 in the Medical Oncology Area of the UMAE Oncology Hospital, Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social (IMSS), according to a before and after quasi-experimental design to evaluate the effect of the intervention. The first stage was to diagnose through semantic networks using the results to create and validate a survey. The second stage was the educative intervention focused on providing general information to patients in the area of medical oncology. Finally, the initial survey was used in order to measure the impact of the intervention, which had been previously implemented and validated. The cumulative total of patients during the three stages was 4,200.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Patients attitudes were modified with a specific favorable tendency on the instrument from 51% to 94% (p = 0.05) of total instrument perceptions.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This intervention significantly changed patients' attitudes related to the medical oncology area.
authors.affiliation: División de Calidad, Hospital de Oncología, Centro Médico Nacional Siglo XXI, Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social, México, DF, Mexico.
authors.forename: Francisco Omar
authors.initials: FO
authors.lastname: Cortes-Ibáñez
authors.forename: Alma Gabriela
authors.initials: AG
authors.lastname: Valenzuela-Flores
authors.forename: Juan Alejandro
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Silva
authors.forename: Claudia Cristina
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Guzmán-Juárez
authors.forename: Adriana Abigail
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Valenzuela-Flores
authors.forename: Pedro Mario
authors.initials: PM
authors.lastname: Escudero-de los Ríos
mesh_terms: D000047:Academies and Institutes; D001294:Attitude to Health; D003625:Data Collection; D006801:Humans; D008800:Mexico; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy; D016522:Oncology Service, Hospital / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D010342:Patient Acceptance of Health Care; D010353:Patient Education as Topic / Q000458:organization & administration*; D017060:Patient Satisfaction; D010361:Patients / Q000523:psychology*; D010565:Persuasive Communication; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D015397:Program Evaluation; D012660:Semantics; D012938:Social Perception; D012943:Social Security