The four most often indicated reasons* by medical and law students (%) reported to have principally influenced the attitudes toward information about the diagnosis or prognosis of cancer if the patient asks to be told the truth
| (1) Diagnosis | (2) Prognosis | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reasons†: | Reasons†: | ||||||||
| Response:‡ | Most often | 2nd most | 3rd most | 4th most | Response:‡ | Most often | 2nd most | 3rd most | 4th most |
| *A = respect for autonomy, BI = informing is best, BN = not informing is best, T = always tell the truth, RL = required by the law, DH = don’t harm. | |||||||||
| †If >100% in the same line this is due to about 5–10% of students having indicated more than one reason as most important. | |||||||||
| ‡1 certainly respect the patient’s wish (that is, inform), 2 probably respect the patient’s wish (that is, inform), 3 as likely to respect as not to respect the patient’s wish, 4 probably do not respect the patient’s wish (that is, do not inform), 5 certainly do not respect the patient’s wish (that is, do not inform). | |||||||||
| §Others: the exact prognosis of the individual cannot be known from statistical average life expectancy. | |||||||||
| Group M1 : 64 medical students at the end of their 5th year in 1996. | |||||||||
| Group M2 : 63 medical students at the beginning of their 5th year in 1996. | |||||||||
| Group L1 : 75 first to fourth year law students from an “international law” lecture in 1996. | |||||||||
| Group L2 : 93 mostly first year law students from a “law and medicine” lecture in 1996. | |||||||||
| Law students | |||||||||
| 1 (n=128) | BI (46.9) | A (39.8) | T (24.2) | RL (9.4) | 1 (n=90) | A (46.7) | BI (45.6) | T (23.3) | RL (10.0) |
| 2 (n=32) | A (43.8) | BI (40.6) | T (25.0) | DH (9.4) | 2 (n=47) | A (38.3) | BI (29.8) | T (25.5) | BN (6.4) |
| 3 (n=5) | A (40.0) | T (40.0) | BI (20.0) | BN (20.0) | 3 (n=9) | A (33.3) | BI (11.1) | T (11.1) | BN (11.1) |
| 4 (n=2) | BN (100.0) | 4 (n=17) | BN (47.1) | DH (35.3) | A (17.6) | BI (5.9) | |||
| 5 (n=0) | 5 (n=4) | BN (75.0) | A (25.0) | ||||||
| Medical students | |||||||||
| 1 (n=92) | A (77.2) | BI (20.7) | T (5.4) | RL (3.3) | 1 (n=37) | A (70.3) | BI (16.0) | T (10.0) | DH (8.1) |
| 2 (n=35) | A (60.0) | BI (34.3) | DH (8.6) | T (2.9) | 2 (n=57) | A (71.9) | BI (29.8) | DH (5.3) | T (1.8) |
| 3 (n=0) | 3 (n=16) | A (56.3) | BN (25.0) | BI (18.1) | DH (12.5) | ||||
| 4 (n=0) | 4 (n=13) | BN (23.1) | A (23.19) | BI (7.7) | Others§ | ||||
| 5 (n=0) | 5 (n=4) | BN (25.0) | Others§ | ||||||