Background
Cancer survivors’ disclosure of complementary health approaches (CHA) to their follow-up care physicians is necessary to ensure safe and optimal use of such approaches. Rates of disclosure of CHA are variable and may be facilitated by patient-centered communication.
Methods
This cross-sectional study conducted in 2003–2004 examined a population-based sample (N=623) of leukemia, colorectal, and bladder cancer survivors who were 2–5 years post-diagnosis. A subset of participants who reported using CHA (N=196) was analyzed using multivariable logistic regression analyses to examine the association between patients’ perception of their physician’s patient-centered communication (i.e., information exchange, affective behavior, knowledge of patient-as-person) and patients’ disclosure of CHA use to their physician adjusting for physician, patient and patient-physician relationship factors.
Results
Thirty-one percent of the full sample used CHA and 47.6% of CHA users disclosed their use to their physicians. Disclosure was significantly associated with patient-centered communication even when adjusting for hypothesized covariates (OR=1.37; 95% Confidence Interval [CI; 1.09, 1.71]). Perceived physician knowledge of the patient-as-person (OR=1.28; CI [1.10, 1.48]) and information exchange (OR=1.27; CI [1.02, 1.60]) were the aspects of patient-centered communication that contributed to this association. The main reason for nondisclosure assessed in the survey was that survivors did not think it was important to discuss CHA (67.0%). A majority of physicians encouraged continued use of CHA, when disclosed (64.8%).
Conclusion
Results support that improving the overall patient-centeredness of cancer follow-up care and improving disclosure of CHA use are potentially synergistic clinical goals.