Attitudes, Knowledge, and Behaviors of School Peers of Adolescent Cancer Patients
Maintaining positive interpersonal relationships with peers is critically important to the psychological adjustment of adolescents with cancer. In numerous studies, however, patients have reported feeling rejected, avoided. and misunderstood by their peers. Are these feelings consistent with reality? Or are they products of the patients' general depression and deteriorating self-image? The purpose of this study was to lay the groundwork for answering this question by examining how peers of adolescents with cancer regard these relationships. The data revealed a high level of knowledge about cancer and generally positive attitudes and behaviors among peers of these patients. Possible reasons for the discrepancies between the perceptions reported by peers and those previously reported by patients are discussed.
In this article, we review guidelines which may be used to evaluate studies documenting prognosis. We describe a clinical problem involving the prognosis of a patient in an intensive care unit. An approach to the literature search is then outlined. The results of the literature search are described and criteria for the appraisal of articles describing prognosis and prognostic factors are discussed using one article as an example.