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The contagion of optimism: The relationship between patient optimism and palliative care clinician overestimation of survival among hospitalized patients with advanced cancer
Author(s) -
Ingersoll Luke T,
Alexander Stewart C.,
Ladwig Susan,
Anderson Wendy,
Norton Sally A.,
Gramling Robert
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
psycho‐oncology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.41
H-Index - 137
eISSN - 1099-1611
pISSN - 1057-9249
DOI - 10.1002/pon.5080
Subject(s) - optimism , medicine , conversation , palliative care , quality of life (healthcare) , trait , family medicine , clinical psychology , psychology , psychotherapist , nursing , communication , computer science , programming language
Objective Clinicians frequently overestimate survival time among seriously ill patients, and this can result in medical treatment at end of life that does not reflect the patient's preferences. Little is known, however, about the sources of clinicians' optimistic bias in survival estimation. Related work in social networks and experimental psychology demonstrates that psychological states—such as optimism—can transfer from one person to another. Methods We directly observed and audio recorded 189 initial inpatient palliative care consultations among hospitalized patients with advanced cancer. Patients self‐reported their level of trait optimism and expectations for survival prognosis prior to the palliative care consultation, and the palliative care clinicians rated their expectations for the patient's survival time following the initial conversation with the patient. We followed patient mortality for 6 months. Results Patient optimism was associated with clinician overestimation of their survival in a dose–response relationship. Clinicians were approximately three times as likely to overestimate the survival of patients endorsing both high trait optimism and optimistic ratings of their survival time compared with neither (OR: 2.95; 95% CI: 1.24‐7.02). This association was not attenuated by adjustment for age, gender, race, ethnicity, education, income, cancer type, functional status, quality of life, or white blood cell count (OR adj : 3.45; 95% CI: 1.24‐9.66). Conclusion Patients' optimism may have some influence over their clinicians' prognostic judgments.