Information needs of patients with cancer: results from a large study in UK cancer centres
By V. Jenkins, L. Fallowfield, Jacqueline Saul. British Journal of Cancer, 2001
898 citations recorded by the source corpus.
As part of a multi-centred study evaluating a communication skills training model for clinicians, we collected information preferences using an adaptation of Cassileth's Information Needs questionnaire from a heterogeneous sample of 2331 patients. Results showed that 87% (2027) wanted all possible information, both good and bad news and 98% (2203) preferred to know whether or not their illness was cancer. Cross tabulation of responses revealed no significant differences in information preferences for tumour site or treatment aims but did show an effect of age and sex. The few 58/440 (13.2%) patients who stated that in general they preferred to leave disclosure of details up to the doctor, tended to be older patients more than 70 years of age (chi square = 26.01, df = 2, P< 0.0001), although paradoxically they still wanted to know certain specific details. In comparison to men women preferred to know the specific name of the illness (chi square = 4.9, df = 1, P< 0.02) and what were all the possible treatments (chi square = 8.26, df = 1, P< 0.004). The results from this very large sample provide conclusive evidence that the vast majority of patients with cancer want a great deal of specific information concerning their illness and treatment. Failure to disclose such information on the grounds that significant numbers of patients prefer not to know is untenable. © 2001 Cancer Research Campaign
Subfields: General Health Professions, Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health
View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/3d21b426398ccea333d7bf0010d0bbf8fc28736b
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Citations in the corpus
- Information needs and sources of information among cancer patients: a systematic review of research (1980-2003). (2005, background): “5%) [8–13,15,17,18,20,21,23–29,31,33,34,36,37,42, 45,48,50–58,61–64,66,68,76,79,82,84,86,93–96, 98–100,102,103,106,109,110,112] (65% of articles, n = 59) Etiology and course of disease (15.”
- 5th ESO-ESMO international consensus guidelines for advanced breast cancer (ABC 5) (2020, background): “Most patients want considerably more information than many healthcare professionals expect, but the type and amount of information sought should be clarified.(23) There are some significant cultural variations, in particular the involvement of the family in filtering information, which can make disc”
- Patients using the Internet to obtain health information: how this affects the patient-health professional relationship. (2006, background): “Surveys of cancer patients indicate that the two main reasons patients turn to the Internet for information is that they are dissatisfied with the information provided to them by health professionals [21,22] and to reassure themselves that they have every bit of information available [23].”