title: Family caregivers' awareness of illness and attitude toward disclosure during chemotherapy for advanced cancer.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  We investigated family caregivers' awareness of disease status and attitude toward disclosure of disease progression compared with those of cancer patients and explored the potential association between family caregivers' attitudes and patients' quality of life (QOL).
  
  
  METHODS
  We carried out a survey using self-administered questionnaires answered by pairs of family caregivers and patients diagnosed with advanced cancer (n = 136 pairs). To assess patients' QOL, we used the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Questionnaire.
  
  
  RESULTS
  More than half of family caregivers (54%) did not have full knowledge of patients' advanced stage and goal of therapy. Positive attitudes toward disclosure were less common in family caregivers than in patients (59.4% and 85.4%, respectively; p < 0.01). The family caregivers' positive attitudes toward disclosure were inversely associated with patients' low functional scores (emotion [p = 0.04] and cognition [p = 0.02]) and high symptom scores (nausea and vomiting, pain, and insomnia; p < 0.05). However, in most QOL scales, patients' attitudes were not significantly associated with functioning and symptom scores.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  A large portion of family caregivers may not know the patients' exact status. This study also suggests that the family caregivers' attitudes may differ from patients' and may be associated with patients' QOL.
authors.affiliation: Department of Family Medicine, Korea Cancer Center Hospital, Korea Institute of Radiological and Medical Sciences, Seoul, Korea.
authors.forename: Soyeun
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Youngjin
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ko
authors.forename: Sinyoung
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kwon
authors.forename: Dong-Yeop
authors.initials: DY
authors.lastname: Shin
authors.forename: Cheol Hyeon
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Sung Hyun
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Seong-Jin
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Cho
authors.forename: Im Il
authors.initials: II
authors.lastname: Na
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001294:Attitude to Health; D017028:Caregivers; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000473:pathology / Q000523:psychology*; D010347:Patient Care Planning; D011788:Quality of Life; D014342:Truth Disclosure
keywords: QOL; cancer; disclosure; family caregiver; oncology