Decision-making in breast cancer screening: A qualitative exploration of the match between women's beliefs and screening information in the Netherlands

Perspectives of international experts and the Danish citizens on the 'relevant knowledge' that citizens need for making informed choices about participation in cancer screening: Qualitative study

OBJECTIVES

This study aimed to investigate the perspectives of international experts and Danish citizens on relevant knowledge about population-based breast, colorectal and cervical cancer screening.

METHODS

This was a qualitative interview study with focus group interviews with experts and Danish citizens eligible for breast, colorectal and/or cervical cancer screening. Data were collected using semi-structured interview guides, audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim. A thematic analysis was conducted.

RESULTS

Participants were nine international experts from Germany, Canada, the USA, Sweden, the Netherlands and Australia, and 54 citizens from Denmark. Most citizens had 'adequate' or 'problematic' levels of health literacy. Themes that experts and citizens agreed on were: knowledge about the disease and symptoms, practical information about screening, benefits of screening, the option of non-participation and the importance of having numeric information of possible screening outcomes. Experts agreed on the importance of knowledge about the harms of screening, but only a minority of citizens considered this important.

CONCLUSIONS

The experts and citizens disagreed on the relevance of knowledge about harms of screening and agreed on other relevant knowledge.

PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS

What experts and citizens find important may not align when making informed decisions. Therefore, experts and citizens needs to be involved when developing questionnaires.

Qualitative study on the characteristics and dilemmas of eHealth literacy among family caregivers of breast cancer patients

Objective

To explore the elements and dilemmas of eHealth literacy among family caregivers of breast cancer patients, providing a reference for improving their caregiving abilities.

Methods

From September to October 2023, a phenomenological research method was adopted. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 10 family caregivers of breast cancer patients in the Department of Breast and Thyroid Surgery of a tertiary grade A hospital in Xi'an. Braun's thematic analysis method was used for data analysis.

Results

Two themes and six sub-themes were extracted. (1) Element characteristics: information acquisition ability, information discrimination ability, and information application ability. (2) Information dilemmas: information overload and chaos, difficulty in judging the authenticity and reliability of information, and obstacles in information application.

Conclusion

There are many problems in the eHealth literacy of family caregivers of breast cancer patients. Medical staff should have provided guidance on information acquisition, conducted training on information discrimination and application, addressed information overload and chaos, strengthened information supervision, improved the proficiency of using e-communication tools, and provided more professional guidance to enhance their eHealth literacy and reduce their information-related distress.

Enhancing Multispectral Breast Imaging Quality Through Frame Accumulation and Hybrid GA-CPSO Registration

Multispectral transmission imaging has emerged as a promising technique for imaging breast tissue with high resolution. However, the method encounters challenges such as low grayscale, noisy transmission images with weak signals, primarily due to the strong absorption and scattering of light in breast tissue. A common approach to improve the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and overall image quality is frame accumulation. However, factors such as camera jitter and respiratory motion during image acquisition can cause frame misalignment, degrading the quality of the accumulated image. To address these issues, this study proposes a novel image registration method. A hybrid approach combining a genetic algorithm (GA) and a constriction factor-based particle swarm optimization (CPSO), referred to as GA-CPSO, is applied for image registration before frame accumulation. The efficiency of this hybrid method is enhanced by incorporating a squared constriction factor (SCF), which speeds up the registration process and improves convergence towards optimal solutions. The GA identifies potential solutions, which are then refined by CPSO to expedite convergence. This methodology was validated on the sequence of breast frames taken at 600 nm, 620 nm, 670 nm, and 760 nm wavelength of light and proved the enhancement of accuracy by various mathematical assessments. It demonstrated high accuracy (99.93%) and reduced registration time. As a result, the GA-CPSO approach significantly improves the effectiveness of frame accumulation and enhances overall image quality. This study explored the groundwork for precise multispectral transmission image segmentation and classification.