Lisa F Rezende

Interests

No activities entered.

Courses

Scholarly Contributions

Chapters

Journals/Publications

• More info

  People living with cancer, and their caregivers and families, have access to many sources of health information. This brings both positives and challenges. Some information is not easy to understand and it can be difficult to know what is relevant to an individual's situation. It can also be difficult to know what sources are trustworthy, how to check accuracy, and what might be false information (misinformation or disinformation). This podcast brings together the perspectives of a medical oncologist, a patient advocate, and a recipient of risk-mitigating cancer care who also brings experience of caregiving and volunteering for an organization that provides information to support those at risk of developing cancer. They discuss various approaches to help people find relevant and trustworthy health information, and consider how healthcare providers can support this. An accompanying infographic provides a patient's guide to cancer-focused medical journals, which can be shared with people with cancer and their caregivers to help open the door to the patient-friendly content that is sometimes published by these journals. Overall, people are encouraged to seek support from their healthcare providers to find and interpret cancer information, with consideration of relevance to their own situation and the validity of the source.

Proceedings Publications

• More info

  Abstract Rationale: Breast cancer diagnosis at a young age is associated with higher risk of recurrence, second malignancy, mortality, morbidity, and impact on quality of life. Young breast cancer survivors face more life-years after treatment, with associated financial, emotional, and physical burdens. Long-term effects of treatment may include early menopause, fertility impairment, neuropathy, cardiovascular disease, lowered bone density, and risk of second malignancies. Young women with or at-risk for breast cancer often seek health information through mainstream print and digital media. However, they often find it does not address their unique concerns, is difficult to interpret, or even misleading. Media reports of breast cancer research are often unreliable, misleading, or confusing regarding which information is clinically relevant. Common flaws include exaggerating prevalence, ignoring potential side effects of treatment, and failing to discuss all treatment options. Young women with or at-risk for breast cancer, need accurate, clearly presented information based on sound evidence to help them make informed decisions about their specific health needs. To help women better understand media coverage about new research, Facing Our Risk of Cancer Empowered (FORCE) developed the CDC-funded XRAYS (eXamining Relevance of Articles to Young Survivors) program. XRAYS is an online resource that provides brief articles summarizing recent research relevant to young women with or at-risk for breast cancer. XRAYS articles rate the quality and relevance of research, the quality of media reporting, and suggest questions that may be useful to address with health care providers. One critical aim of XRAYS is to improve users’ understanding of the limitations of research methods and of media reporting. FORCE charged an independent evaluator with conducting an assessment of XRAYS’ effects on users’ understanding of methodological and reporting issues in media articles about research related to breast cancer. Objective: The objective of this study was to assess whether XRAYS improves readers’ understanding of limitations of study methods and media reporting more than reading media reports alone. Methods: To assess XRAYS’ impact on users’ understanding of limitations in research methods and reporting quality, an independent evaluator conducted a study with 36 volunteer participants who were attending a FORCE conference. Participants were randomly assigned to treatment or control groups. The treatment group read a media report and the corresponding XRAYS article. The control group read only the media report. After reading the materials, participants answered paper and pencil multiple choice questions about methodological limitations of the research discussed in the media report, and about limitations of the reporting itself. Results: Results are summarized in the table. GroupNMean Score (s.d.)t-score (d.f.)PComparison Group1742.85 (19.85)-3.08 (34)

Presentations

Poster Presentations