Disclosure of incurable illness to spouses: do they want to know? A Swedish population-based follow-up study.

PURPOSE

Awareness of the cancer patient's terminal state decreases the risk of psychological morbidity of the bereaved. We wanted to determine whether male spouses of cancer patients who died from their disease had received information that the illness was incurable and to determine their preferences of disclosure.

PARTICIPANTS AND METHODS

The study included 907 widowers whose wives had died of cancer. In an anonymous questionnaire, we asked whether the widower had received information that his wife's illness was incurable and about his attitudes towards receiving this information.

RESULTS

Six hundred ninety-one widowers (76%) participated. Eighty percent of the widowers reported that they were told [corrected] that the wife's cancer was incurable, and 21% reported that they had been informed within 1 week before the patient's death. Although 14% of the widowers did not think the next of kin should be told immediately when the patient's cancer is beyond cure, 39% of the men did not want the patient to be immediately informed. Furthermore, 71% of the men who were never informed about the incurable illness believed that the next of kin should receive that information immediately.

CONCLUSION

Although a large majority of men prefer an immediate disclosure about the incurable stage of their wife's illness, 41% of the husbands received this information during the last week of the patient's life or not at all. These findings indicate that there is room for improvement in the level of communication between health providers and the husbands of women with incurable cancer.