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ABSTRACT The adherence by patients to diabetic foot ulcer therapy is often difficult. The goal of this study was to begin to understand how a patient's health literacy affects their foot ulcer management decisions. Initially using a cross-sectional study design, we evaluated diabetics with foot ulcers within 4 weeks of being asked to participate in a longitudinal study. We assessed health literacy using measures of general health literacy, diabetes health literacy, diabetes self-efficacy, and diabetes numeracy. Individuals enrolled in the study had higher health literacy based on the Short Test of Functional Health Literacy in Adults [33.8 (SD 2.3) versus 27.3 (SD 9.6); p = 0.009] as compared to individuals who previously declined an invitation to enroll in the study. Furthermore, patients with lower Short Test of Functional Health Literacy in Adults scores had larger ( p = 0.04) and older ( p = 0.125) wounds (markers for poorer prognosis). Other measures of literacy showed similar results. In conclusion, those with diminished health literacy were less likely to enroll in an investigational study and had wounds that were less likely to heal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To determine the validity of patient self-report of skin cancer history., Design: A cohort of patients was randomly selected from the case group in a prior case-control study involving skin cancer, and a second cohort was randomly selected from the controls of that study. Patient self-reported history (as determined by responses to a survey) was compared with the gold standard of chart documentation of a pathology report or a procedure note from Mohs micrographic surgery demonstrating skin cancer., Setting: University-based outpatient dermatology clinic., Patients: Three hundred patients were selected., Main Outcome Measures: Patients were considered to have correctly classified their skin cancer history if their self-reported history was consistent with chart documentation., Results: We obtained chart information for 258 patients.Of those patients, 183 (70.9%) had chart documentation of nonmelanoma skin cancer, and 16 (6.2%) had chart documentation of a melanoma. Using chart documentation as the gold standard, we found that patients correctly identified their basal cell carcinoma status in 84.3% of cases; their squamous cell carcinoma status in 81.5% of cases; their overall nonmelanoma skin cancer status in 91.8% of cases; their melanoma status in 94.8% of cases; and their overall skin cancer status in 92.6% of cases. Patients' self-reported history of skin cancer of any type had a positive predictive value of 95.1% and a negative predictive value of 85.9%., Conclusions: Self-reported history of skin cancer had a high degree of sensitivity and specificity and a high positive and negative predictive value within the study population. Obtaining medical information by patient report appears to be a useful tool for determining medical history of skin cancer.

Background: Very little has been published on whether a relationship exists between atopic dermatitis (AD) and skin cancer., Objective: The goal of this study was to investigate whether individuals with AD are more likely than other patients with dermatologic conditions to develop nonmelanoma skin cancer., Methods: This was a case-control, mailed-survey study., Results: Of those contacted, 69.8% (3207 of 4591) filled out the survey. Of the control patients, 18.4% (254) had a history of AD as defined by the United Kingdom Working Party diagnosis criteria and composed 13.7% (210) of the cases. The unadjusted odds ratio of AD to nonmelanoma skin cancer was 0.70 (95% confidence interval 0.57-0.85). After fully adjusting for age, sex, ethnicity, and topical steroid use the odds ratio was 0.78 (0.61, 0.98). Using different definitions of AD had little effect on this result., Conclusions: It does not appear that patients with a history of AD are more likely to develop nonmelanoma skin cancers than other patients with dermatologic conditions.