You are here

Article Text

Article menu
Download PDFPDF
Qualitative
Patients with cancer used numerical information to calculate the odds and mobilise their coping responses

https://doi.org/10.1136/ebn.10.1.31

Statistics from Altmetric.com

    Request Permissions

    If you wish to reuse any or all of this article please use the link below which will take you to the Copyright Clearance Center’s RightsLink service. You will be able to get a quick price and instant permission to reuse the content in many different ways.

    Thorne S, Hislop TG, Kuo M, et al. Hope and probability: patient perspectives of the meaning of numerical information in cancer communication. Qual Health Res 2006;16:318–36.OpenUrlCrossRefPubMedWeb of Science

    Q How do patients with cancer experience the communication of numerical information in their health care?

    DESIGN

    Interpretive description.

    SETTING

    Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

    PARTICIPANTS

    200 patients (45% ⩾60 y of age, 74% women) who had cancer of the breast (50%), prostate (14%), gastrointestinal system (10%), head and neck (5%), cervix/uterus/ovary (5%), or other site (6%) or had lymphoma or leukaemia (7%).

    METHODS

    Patients’ views were elicited through individual interviews, focus groups, and written accounts. Interviews and focus groups were audiotaped, transcribed, and analysed for themes.

    MAIN FINDINGS

    (1) What are my chances?The context of numerical information in coping with cancer. Patients used numbers in various ways as they grappled with the meaning of the disease in their lives. They preferred to be well informed, which usually meant knowing facts about the disease. They associated this with having power, choice, or control. Calculating the odds. Patients usually associated the chances of something occurring with the appropriateness of an optimistic or hopeful attitude about it. Their expressions of frequencies and statistical concepts ranged from vague and imprecise statements to complex and sophisticated …

    View Full Text

    Footnotes

    • For correspondence: Dr S Thorne, School of Nursing, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. thorne{at}nursing.ubc.ca

    • Source of funding: National Cancer Institute of Canada.