Disclosure of Cancer Diagnosis: an Individualized and Non-paternalistic Approach Is Preferred

Abstract

There is no consensus among healthcare providers on a unified disclosure practice with regard to cancer diagnosis, whether to tell or not. This issue is complicated by the absence of a clear policy for healthcare practitioners, who face this dilemma every day in their clinical practice. This study uniquely aims to explore Jordanian public preference on cancer diagnosis disclosure and the type of information they need. A descriptive cross-sectional survey design was used in this study. The sample consisted of 485 participants who were conveniently selected from the Jordanian public, and data was collected using the Arabic-Cancer Patients Information Needs Questionnaire. The majority of participants were females (56.1%) and most of them (62.1%) were aged between 18 and 29 years. It was found that 421 (86.8%) participants wanted to be informed of the diagnosis if they developed cancer. Participants show high needs of information with mean of total score of 4.2 SD 0.7 out of 5. They mainly demanded to know the things that participants could do to help their cure (mean = 4.47, SD 0.77). Also, they wanted to know whether their cancer was under control or not (item no. 4, mean = 4.42, SD 0.81). This study marks a point of change in public thinking about health issues. Jordanian public preferred to be fully informed of their cancer diagnosis. They wanted information about their prognosis, treatment and the available supportive services, which are of great interest to the Jordanian public.

Keywords: Cancer; Diagnosis; Disclosure; Ethics; Jordan; Public; Truth-telling.