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Table 2 Background, clinical and personal characteristics of patients with and without a preference to know prognosis

From: Characteristics of patients with advanced cancer preferring not to know prognosis: a multicenter survey study

Patient characteristics

Patients preferring not to know 1-year mortality risk (30.7%)

n = 161/524

Patients preferring to know 1-year mortality risk (69.3%)

n = 363/524

Sex, % (n) **

 Male

25.4 (73) 1

74.6 (214)

 Female

37.1 (88) 2

62.9 (149)

Age (years), mean ± SD

64.3 ± 10.6

63.7 ± 11.2

Education, % (n) a *

 Low

37.4 (74) 1

62.6 (124)

 Medium

27.3 (38) 1, 2

72.7 (101)

 High

26.5 (49) 2

73.5 (136)

Health literacy (SBSQ-D, 0–4), mean ± SD b

3.2 ± 0.8

3.3 ± 0.8

Numeracy (SNS, 1–6), mean ± SD c *

4.0 ± 1.1

4.3 ± 1.2

Nationality (Dutch), % (n)

95.7 (154)

95.3 (346)

Religion, % (n)

 None

28.5 (88)

71.5 (221)

 Christianity

33.0 (64)

67.0 (130)

 Other d

42.9 (9)

57.1 (12)

Presence of children < 18, % (n) e

 Yes

31.5 (17)

68.5 (37)

 No

32.3 (121)

67.7 (254)

Time since diagnosis (months), mean ± SD f

20.3 ± 23.5

16.7 ± 20.5

Line of systemic treatment during study participation, % (n) g **

 None

22.3 (27) 1

77.7 (94)

 First line

29.1 (65) 1, 2

70.9 (158)

 Second line

38.8 (40) 2, 3

61.2 (63)

  ≥ Third line

43.9 (29) 3

56.1 (37)

Tumor type, % (n) c

 Lung

31.2 (39)

68.8 (86)

 Pleura

25.8 (8)

72.4 (23)

 Oesophagogastric

15.5 (11)

84.5 (60)

 Pancreatic

22.2 (8)

77.8 (28)

 Other gastrointestinal

35.1 (27)

64.9 (50)

 Colorectal

33.3 (5)

66.7 (10)

 Brain

36.1 (22)

63.9 (39)

 Gynaecological

40.8 (20)

59.2 (29)

 Soft tissue

42.9 (6)

57.1 (8)

 Other (each type n < 10) h

38.5 (15)

61.5 (24)

Patients’ perceived likelihood of dying in one year, % (n) I ***

 Very to extremely unlikely

44.8 (56) 1

55.2 (69)

 Unlikely

24.1 (13) 2, 3

75.9 (41)

 Possibly

31.0 (58) 3

69.0 (129)

 Likely

22.5 (9) 2, 3

77.5 (31)

 Very to extremely likely

20.4 (22) 2

79.6 (86)

Health-related quality of life (GHS, 0–100), mean ± SD e **

66.7 ± 20.9

61.4 ± 20.8

Fighting spirit (mini-MAC, 4–16), mean ± SD j ***

12.3 ± 2.4

11.1 ± 2.8

Trait optimism (LOT-R, 0–24), mean ± SD f

15.1 ± 4.2

14.4 ± 3.7

Trait anxiety (STAI-trait, 20–80), mean ± SD f *

38.2 ± 10.7

40.4 ± 10.6

Avoidance coping (UCL, 8–32), mean ± SD k

15.8 ± 3.3

15.4 ± 3.3

Uncertainty tolerance (TFA, 7–42), mean ± SD k

26.1 ± 5.9

25.7 ± 5.9

Trust in the physician (TiOS-SF, 1–5), mean ± SD f

4.3 ± 0.6

4.3 ± 0.7

  1. 1, 2, 3 Proportions with similar superscripted numbers do not differ significantly from each other (α = .05)
  2. a n = 522/524 (2 missing). Low vocational education; medium level vocational education; high vocational or academic education
  3. b n = 515/524 (9 missing)
  4. c n = 518/524 (6 missing)
  5. d Including Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism, Humanism, spirituality and “own belief”
  6. e n = 523/524 (1 missing)
  7. f n = 517/524 (7 missing)
  8. g n = 513/524 (11 missing)
  9. h Including melanoma, head and neck, thyroid, breast, vagina, prostate, bladder, kidney, adrenal cortex, bone, carcinoid and unknown primary tumors
  10. i n = 514/524 (10 missing)
  11. j n = 511/524 (13 missing)
  12. k n = 516/524 (8 missing)
  13. * Significant at p < .05. ** Significant at p < .01. *** Significant at p < .001
  14. n Sample size, SD Standard deviation, SBSQ-D Set of Brief Screening Questions-Dutch, SNS Subjective Numeracy Scale, GHS Global Health Status from the EORTC-QLQ-C30, EORTC-QLQ-C30 European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Questionnaire for Cancer, MAC Mental Adjustment to Cancer, LOT-R Life Orientation Test-Revised, STAI Spielberger State and Trait Anxiety Inventory, UCL Utrecht Coping List, TFA Tolerance for Ambiguity, TiOS-SF Trust in Oncologist Scale-Short Form
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BMC Cancer

ISSN: 1471-2407

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