Open AccessTruth‐Telling and Cancer Diagnoses: Physician Attitudes and Practices in Qatar
Author(s) -
Rodriguez del Pozo Pablo,
Fins Joseph J.,
Helmy Ismail,
El Chaki Rim,
El Shazly Tarek,
Wafadari Deena,
Mahfoud Ziyad
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
the oncologist
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.176
H-Index - 164
eISSN - 1549-490X
pISSN - 1083-7159
DOI - 10.1634/theoncologist.2012-0128
Subject(s) - medical diagnosis , medicine , family medicine , continuing medical education , polling , truth telling , cancer , sample (material) , medical education , continuing education , psychology , pathology , computer science , psychoanalysis , operating system , chemistry , chromatography
Learning Objectives After completing this course, the reader will be able to: Compare physician‐stated and actual disclosure practices with respect to cancer diagnoses. Identify variables that influence physician truth‐telling practices with respect to cancer diagnoses.This article is available for continuing medical education credit at CME.TheOncologist.com There is limited information regarding physicians' attitudes toward revealing cancer diagnoses to patients in the Arab world. Using a questionnaire informed by a seminal study carried out by Oken in 1961, our research sought to determine present‐day disclosure practices in Qatar, identify physician sociodemographic variables associated with truth‐telling, and outline trends related to future practice. A sample of 131 physicians was polled. Although nearly 90% of doctors said they would inform cancer patients of their diagnosis, ∼66% of respondents stated that they made exceptions to their policy, depending on patient characteristics. These data suggest that clinical practices are somewhat discordant on professed beliefs about the ethical propriety of disclosure.