Masood Jawaid, Salahuddin Afsar, Shaukat Ali Jawaid.
Questionnaire Based Survey of general population to assess their views about disclosure of cancer diagnosis and review of literature.
Pak J Med Sci Jan ;19(2):81-8.

Objective: To ascertain people’s views regarding disclosure of cancer diagnosis and whether they would like to share this information with their family. The study also looked at whether if their parents were diagnosed to be suffering from cancer, would they like this information to be communicated to them. Study Design: Questionnaire based survey. Main Outcome Measures: Proportions of various views. Results: The total number of persons surveyed were 520. Fifteen persons refused to participate in the survey, hence they were excluded and 505 respondents 299 male and 206 female were analyzed. Ages of the respondents were between 18 to 80 years. The study population belonged to different socio-economic groups in the society. Three hundred ninty-one (77.4%) responded positively that they would like to know if they ever suffer from cancer, while 112 (22.1%) said No and 2 (0.39%) said it doesn’t matter. Three hundred seventeen (62.7%) wanted their family to be informed while 187 (37.0%) said No and the attitude of 1 (0.19%) was Indifferent. One hundred seventy (33.6%) responded positively that if their parents were diagnosed to be suffering from cancer they should be told about it, whereas 334 (66.1%) did not wish their parents to be informed and 1 (0.19%) was indecisive. All those who were indifferent were elderly, above the age of seventy years. Majority 326 (82.6%) who wanted to know the cancer diagnoses were literate and interestingly 57 (50.8%) who didn’t wish to be informed were also literate. Conclusions: Most of the people in the survey 391 (77.4%) wanted to know the diagnosis, if they ever suffered from cancer. Again 317 (62.7%) wished this to be disclosed to their family. Only a small percentage 170 (33.6%), wanted to tell the bad news of cancer diagnosis to their parents if they ever suffered.

PakMediNet -Pakistan's largest Database of Pakistani Medical Journals - http://www.pakmedinet.com