Cargando…

Exploring Youth Perceptions About Cancer Prevention and Preferences for Education: a Qualitative Study

This study aimed to characterize adolescents’ perspectives on cancer and cancer prevention and to explore their preferences for cancer education. A total of 188 middle and high school students participated in 25 focus groups. Focus groups were led by study team members and included five to ten parti...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Abraham, Olufunmilola, Szela, Lisa, Feng, Emilie, Egbujor, Maryann, Gay, Sommer
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Springer US 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8360774/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34387834
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s13187-021-02077-0
_version_ 1783737812576632832
author Abraham, Olufunmilola
Szela, Lisa
Feng, Emilie
Egbujor, Maryann
Gay, Sommer
author_facet Abraham, Olufunmilola
Szela, Lisa
Feng, Emilie
Egbujor, Maryann
Gay, Sommer
author_sort Abraham, Olufunmilola
collection PubMed
description This study aimed to characterize adolescents’ perspectives on cancer and cancer prevention and to explore their preferences for cancer education. A total of 188 middle and high school students participated in 25 focus groups. Focus groups were led by study team members and included five to ten participants each. Adolescents were asked to discuss their cancer and cancer prevention knowledge, sources of cancer education, and preferences for cancer prevention education. Focus groups were audio-recorded, and professionally transcribed. Transcripts were content and thematically analyzed by two study team members using NVivo qualitative data software. Six themes were identified in focus groups: knowledge about cancer, negative perceptions of cancer, awareness of cancer prevention, engagement in cancer prevention, facilitators and barriers for action, and preferences for cancer education. Adolescents described a wide range of cancer education sources, including friends, family, healthcare professionals, school, technology, and pamphlets. Participants associated cancer with negative emotions, such as sadness and fear. Participants expressed interest in learning about cancer and cancer prevention, but also identified barriers to engaging in preventative behaviors, such as discomfort, lack of knowledge, and lack of personal connection to cancer. Adolescents preferred learning through personal presentations, online videos, school, educational games, and social situations. Adolescence is a critical period for learning and developing healthy behaviors. Awareness of cancer and cancer prevention is crucial to lowering cancer risk in the future. To be effective, cancer education for adolescents should target specific areas of cancer prevention and address barriers to engagement in preventative behaviors. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s13187-021-02077-0.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-8360774
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2021
publisher Springer US
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-83607742021-08-13 Exploring Youth Perceptions About Cancer Prevention and Preferences for Education: a Qualitative Study Abraham, Olufunmilola Szela, Lisa Feng, Emilie Egbujor, Maryann Gay, Sommer J Cancer Educ Article This study aimed to characterize adolescents’ perspectives on cancer and cancer prevention and to explore their preferences for cancer education. A total of 188 middle and high school students participated in 25 focus groups. Focus groups were led by study team members and included five to ten participants each. Adolescents were asked to discuss their cancer and cancer prevention knowledge, sources of cancer education, and preferences for cancer prevention education. Focus groups were audio-recorded, and professionally transcribed. Transcripts were content and thematically analyzed by two study team members using NVivo qualitative data software. Six themes were identified in focus groups: knowledge about cancer, negative perceptions of cancer, awareness of cancer prevention, engagement in cancer prevention, facilitators and barriers for action, and preferences for cancer education. Adolescents described a wide range of cancer education sources, including friends, family, healthcare professionals, school, technology, and pamphlets. Participants associated cancer with negative emotions, such as sadness and fear. Participants expressed interest in learning about cancer and cancer prevention, but also identified barriers to engaging in preventative behaviors, such as discomfort, lack of knowledge, and lack of personal connection to cancer. Adolescents preferred learning through personal presentations, online videos, school, educational games, and social situations. Adolescence is a critical period for learning and developing healthy behaviors. Awareness of cancer and cancer prevention is crucial to lowering cancer risk in the future. To be effective, cancer education for adolescents should target specific areas of cancer prevention and address barriers to engagement in preventative behaviors. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s13187-021-02077-0. Springer US 2021-08-13 2023 /pmc/articles/PMC8360774/ /pubmed/34387834 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s13187-021-02077-0 Text en © The Author(s) 2021 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open AccessThis article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) .
spellingShingle Article
Abraham, Olufunmilola
Szela, Lisa
Feng, Emilie
Egbujor, Maryann
Gay, Sommer
Exploring Youth Perceptions About Cancer Prevention and Preferences for Education: a Qualitative Study
title Exploring Youth Perceptions About Cancer Prevention and Preferences for Education: a Qualitative Study
title_full Exploring Youth Perceptions About Cancer Prevention and Preferences for Education: a Qualitative Study
title_fullStr Exploring Youth Perceptions About Cancer Prevention and Preferences for Education: a Qualitative Study
title_full_unstemmed Exploring Youth Perceptions About Cancer Prevention and Preferences for Education: a Qualitative Study
title_short Exploring Youth Perceptions About Cancer Prevention and Preferences for Education: a Qualitative Study
title_sort exploring youth perceptions about cancer prevention and preferences for education: a qualitative study
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8360774/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34387834
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s13187-021-02077-0
work_keys_str_mv AT abrahamolufunmilola exploringyouthperceptionsaboutcancerpreventionandpreferencesforeducationaqualitativestudy
AT szelalisa exploringyouthperceptionsaboutcancerpreventionandpreferencesforeducationaqualitativestudy
AT fengemilie exploringyouthperceptionsaboutcancerpreventionandpreferencesforeducationaqualitativestudy
AT egbujormaryann exploringyouthperceptionsaboutcancerpreventionandpreferencesforeducationaqualitativestudy
AT gaysommer exploringyouthperceptionsaboutcancerpreventionandpreferencesforeducationaqualitativestudy