The power of informal cancer caregivers' writings: results from a thematic and narrative analysis.

Background: Cancer is a disease that disrupts not only the patient's life, but that of the entire family as well, from a care, organizational, and emotional perspective. Patients share their experience of illness frequently with their informal caregiver (IC), a partner, son/daughter, friend, volunteer, or any other person in the family or social network who offers to support them during their clinical journey. The purpose of this study was to investigate ICs' still unknown cancer experiences through the stories of IC participants in a Literary Artistic Competition the Centro di Riferimento Oncologico di Aviano (CRO) IRCSS organized, and understand the themes that emerged from their texts and hence, the power of expressive writing.

Priorities for Cancer Research From the Viewpoints of Cancer Nurses and Cancer Patients: A Mixed-Method Systematic Review.

Background: Setting priorities in oncology is a useful way to produce a robust set of research questions that researchers can address.

Objective: The aim of this review was to describe cancer nurses and patients' main research priorities and describe their development over time.

Methods: A mixed-method systematic review was conducted for the period from 2000 to 2018 through a search of multiple databases.

Evaluating self-directed learning abilities as a prerequisite of health literacy among older people: Findings from a validation and a cross-sectional study.

Aims And Objectives: To validate a tool measuring self-directed learning (SDL) abilities and to determine these abilities among older individuals attending the University of the Third Age.

Background: Health literacy (HL) and SDL abilities have been documented as being closely linked to each other and as prerequisites in enhancing self-management competences required by older people to protect their health and to manage health issues. Furthermore, individuals with SDL abilities have been documented to have a full understanding of their health treatment prescriptions, to be able to demonstrate increased compliance and to further develop self-care competences.

Patients and caregivers' unmet information needs in the field of patient education: results from an Italian multicenter exploratory survey.

Patient education and empowerment (PEE) is aimed at improving competence of patients during their clinical path and enabling healthcare providers with specific communication strategies. We investigated the interest of Italian Cancer Research & Care Centers (CRCI) users (patients and caregivers) in being involved in PEE activities. An anonymous questionnaire addressed to users was distributed between June 2013 and February 2014.

Cross-cultural validation of health literacy measurement tools in Italian oncology patients.

Background: The aim of this study was to assess the psychometric characteristics of four Health Literacy (HL) measurement tools, viz. Newest Vital Sign (NVS), Short Test of Functional Health Literacy in Adults (STOFHLA), Single Item Literacy Screener (SILS) and Single question on Self-rated Reading Ability (SrRA) among Italian oncology patients.

Methods: The original version of the tools were translated from the English language into Italian using a standard forward-backward procedure and according to internationally recognized good practices.