title: Truth-telling and cancer diagnoses: physician attitudes and practices in Qatar.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Division of Medical Ethics, Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar, Doha, Qatar. prd2002@qatar-med.cornell.edu
authors.forename: Pablo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Rodriguez Del Pozo
authors.forename: Joseph J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Fins
authors.forename: Ismail
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Helmy
authors.forename: Rim
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: El Chaki
authors.forename: Tarek
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: El Shazly
authors.forename: Deena
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Wafaradi
authors.forename: Ziyad
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Mahfoud
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D018912:Arabs; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel / Q000208:ethnology*; D003469:Culture; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009014:Morals; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis*; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians'; D011780:Qatar; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014342:Truth Disclosure