Assessment of Self-Efficacy as a Way to Help Identify Cancer Patients Who Might Benefit from Self-Help Group Attendance?

Abstract

Participating in patient self-help groups is highly recommended to patients in cancer care. Yet, engagement is relatively rare. A total of 253 patients participated in our study conducted as a paper-and-pencil questionnaire. A binominal logistic regression, with interest in participation in self-help groups being the dependent variable, was run. General interest in self-help was high among the respondents. Female gender, higher age, higher education and low self-efficacy were found to significantly predict interest in self-help. Patients reported a lack of information provided by medical professionals. Self-efficacy as a predictor might contribute to characterizing patients who might benefit from self-help group participation.

Keywords:

• Self-help organizations
• self-efficacy
• neoplasm

Acknowledgements

Many thanks to all the participants who took part in the study.

Compliance with ethical standards

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants involved in the study.

Disclosure statement

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the article.

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are openly available in figshare at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.12957518.v1.