title: What Aspects of Personal Care Are Most Important to Patients Undergoing Radiation Therapy for Prostate Cancer?
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The overall quality of patient care is a function of the quality of both its technical and its nontechnical components. The purpose of this study was to identify the elements of nontechnical (personal) care that are most important to patients undergoing radiation therapy for prostate cancer.
  
  
  METHODS
  We reviewed the literature and interviewed patients and health professionals to identify elements of personal care pertinent to patients undergoing radiation therapy for prostate cancer. We identified 143 individual elements relating to 10 aspects of personal care. Patients undergoing radical radiation therapy for prostate cancer completed a self-administered questionnaire in which they rated the importance of each element. The overall importance of each element was measured by the percentage of respondents who rated it as "very important." The importance of each aspect of personal care was measured by the mean importance of its elements.
  
  
  RESULTS
  One hundred eight patients completed the questionnaire. The percentage of patients who rated each element "very important" ranged from 7% to 95% (mean 61%). The mean importance rating of the elements of each aspect of care varied significantly: "perceived competence of caregivers," 80%; "empathy and respectfulness of caregivers," 67%; "adequacy of information sharing," 67%; "patient centeredness," 59%; "accessibility of caregivers," 57%; "continuity of care," 51%; "privacy," 51%; "convenience," 45%; "comprehensiveness of services," 44%; and "treatment environment," 30% (P<.0001). Neither age nor education was associated with importance ratings, but the patient's health status was associated with the rating of some elements of care.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Many different elements of personal care are important to patients undergoing radiation therapy for prostate cancer, but the 3 aspects of care that most believe are most important are these: the perceived competence of their caregivers, the empathy and respectfulness of their caregivers, and the adequacy of information sharing.
authors: Cancer Care and Epidemiology, Queen's Cancer Research Institute, Kingston, Ontario, Canada; Department of Public Health Sciences, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada.
authors: Kimberley A
authors: KA
authors: Foley
authors: Cancer Care and Epidemiology, Queen's Cancer Research Institute, Kingston, Ontario, Canada; Department of Oncology, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada.
authors: Deb
authors: D
authors: Feldman-Stewart
authors: Cancer Care and Epidemiology, Queen's Cancer Research Institute, Kingston, Ontario, Canada; Department of Public Health Sciences, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada.
authors: Patti A
authors: PA
authors: Groome
authors: Cancer Care and Epidemiology, Queen's Cancer Research Institute, Kingston, Ontario, Canada; Department of Public Health Sciences, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada; Department of Oncology, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada; Cancer Centre of Southeastern Ontario, Kingston, Ontario, Canada.
authors: Michael D
authors: MD
authors: Brundage
authors: Cancer Centre of Southeastern Ontario, Kingston, Ontario, Canada.
authors: Siobhan
authors: S
authors: McArdle
authors: Cancer Care and Epidemiology, Queen's Cancer Research Institute, Kingston, Ontario, Canada; Department of Public Health Sciences, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada.
authors: David
authors: D
authors: Wallace
authors: Cancer Care and Epidemiology, Queen's Cancer Research Institute, Kingston, Ontario, Canada; Department of Public Health Sciences, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada; Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada.
authors: Yingwei
authors: Y
authors: Peng
authors: Cancer Care and Epidemiology, Queen's Cancer Research Institute, Kingston, Ontario, Canada; Department of Public Health Sciences, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada; Department of Oncology, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada; Cancer Centre of Southeastern Ontario, Kingston, Ontario, Canada. Electronic address: William.mackillop@krcc.on.ca.
authors: William J
authors: WJ
authors: Mackillop
mesh_terms: D002983:Clinical Competence; D003266:Continuity of Patient Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D004645:Empathy; D006272:Health Facility Environment; D006297:Health Services Accessibility; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D033181:Information Dissemination; D008297:Male; D018802:Patient-Centered Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D018907:Privacy; D011369:Professional-Patient Relations; D011471:Prostatic Neoplasms / Q000523:psychology* / Q000532:radiotherapy*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires