Quantitative association of educational status and effect of patient counseling among cancer patients: A cross-sectional analysis in a tertiary care hospital in South India

Context Patient Counseling is desirable in chronic disease condition which is influenced by innumerable predictors. Educational status is one of the primary predictor which is usually ignored while considering the effect of patient counseling in cancer patients. Therefore, this study was aimed to determine the measure of association between education level and patient counseling among cancer patients. Design and method In the cross-sectional analysis, 90 cancer patients in inpatient setting at Oncology department of tertiary care hospital in South India were examined for a 24-week period through pharmacist-patient interview. The data were recorded in well-customized and validated data collection form. Statistical analysis used: Bivariate analysis and linear regression analysis were performed using IBM SPSS Statistics 16.0, USA to assess the empirical relationship between the two determinants: education level and patient counseling. Results The study participants were aged between 11 to 80 years with 7:11 male to female ratio. Among 90 interviewed patients, 83.3% were counseled. Linear regression analysis demonstrated significant association between education status and patient counseling (p < 0.05). Conclusions The study findings suggest that poor education status can be a barrier to patient's ability to seek and act on the counseling provided by the health care professionals. Thus, it recommends improvisation of counseling practice on patients from different educational divisions.