Different attitudes of Chinese patients and their families toward truth telling of different stages of cancer

Abstract

Our findings indicated that Chinese cancer patients and their families differed in their attitude toward truth telling and the attitudes toward such a disclosure were influenced by disease stage. Physicians should realize this phenomenon and pay more attention to the skills of how to disclose the cancer diagnosis.

“Knowing is Better”: Preferences of Diverse Older Adults for Discussing Prognosis

“…22 Literature from outside the US shows that elders in traditional Chinese families may prefer nondisclosure of poor prognosis, 23,24 though more recent findings from China and Korea suggest that patient attitudes in Asian cultures may be changing in favor of direct, patient-centered disclosure. 25,26 A limited number of studies from the advance planning literature also point to Latinos' unique perspectives on patient-doctor discussions around the end of life. 27,28 Additional studies have addressed how best to discuss prognosis given patients' preferences and perceived needs, 17,29,30 but we could find no deep, qualitative investigations of the reasons behind patient preferences for prognosis in a diverse elderly population.…”

Revealing a Cancer Diagnosis to Patients: Attitudes of Patients, Families, Friends, Nurses, and Physicians in Lebanon—Results of a Cross-Sectional Study

“…Questions were formulated based on a thorough review of earlier studies published in Europe, Asia, and the United States concerning disclosure of a diagnosis or prognosis to cancer patients [10][11][12][13] . However, for some sensitive questions and topics, we took into consideration the specificity of Middle Eastern culture and beliefs-for example, the influence of religion and faith in disclosing a cancer diagnosis, and the role of friends and family in decision-making.…”

“…In Western countries, physicians are less likely to withhold unfavourable information from the patient at the family's request 10 ; in Middle Eastern countries, the patient is not autonomous 11 , and physicians tend to address the family before disclosing any hurtful truth to the patient. But regardless of culture and origin, several studies have shown that 50%-90% of cancer patients want all possible information, both good and bad [12][13][14][15] . Optimal delivery of bad news is, in turn, associated with increased patient satisfaction 4 and better adjustment to cancer 4,6 .…”

Factors influencing the attitudes and behaviors of oncologists regarding the truthful disclosure of information to patients with advanced and incurable cancer

“…Universally, recent survey data of patient preferences demonstrate substantial heterogeneity of preferences that are not individually predictable by geography, culture, age, race, sex or educational level [11][12][13][14][15][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37]39]. Furthermore, studies that have evaluated the concordance between patient preferences on one hand and family member perception of patient preferences on the other hand have demonstrated that family members commonly underestimate the amount of information that patients desire about their condition and the degree to which they want to be involved in decisionmaking [32,37,[40][41][42][43][44].…”

“…Although patients vary in the degree to which they want to be medically informed and to thereby participate in the decision-making process, surveys of patient preferences indicate that the overwhelming majority of patients in Western countries [11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19], and substantial proportion of patients in nonWestern countries [13,[20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38], want disclosure of information to participate in the decision-making process. Universally, recent survey data of patient preferences demonstrate substantial heterogeneity of preferences that are not individually predictable by geography, culture, age, race, sex or educational level [11][12][13][14][15][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30]…”