Division of Neurological Surgery, Department of Surgery, College of Medicine, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria.
Acta Neurol Scand. 2013 Mar;127(3):175-80. doi: 10.1111/j.1600-0404.2012.01694.x. Epub 2012 Jun 19.
Breaking of bad news is anecdotally deemed to be culturally unacceptable, even intolerable, to native Africans. We sought whether this hypothesis could be formulated among a cohort of patients who had difficult diagnoses given them in a Nigerian neurosurgical service.
A semi-structured, interviewer-administered questionnaire was used in a cross-sectional survey among a consecutive cohort of patients on their opinion and preferences regarding the full disclosure of the grave prognoses of their difficult neurosurgical diagnoses.
A total of 109 patients, 74 (67.9%) males, were sampled over a one-and-half-year period. They were mainly young adults, mean age of 40.2 (SD 14.2) years; more than half of them, 56%, had only basic literacy education, but the majority, 99.1%, declared themselves to have serious religious commitments. Less than 3% of the study participants chose not to receive their medical bad news whilst the majority who preferred to have the full disclosure of their medical diagnosis wanted their relations around during the process in 88%, and indeed, 91% would not be happy to be kept in the dark by their knowing relations. Finally, whilst the majority (98%) did not see the prospects of getting any governmental support, hope in God (88%) and family support (40%) were the means by which they expected to cope with the realities of their new futures.
This data-driven study showed that contrary to anecdotal belief breaking bad news was not intolerable to a cohort of native Nigerian-African patients in a neurosurgical practice.
据传闻，向非洲裔本地人传达坏消息在文化上是不可接受的，甚至是无法忍受的。我们在尼日利亚神经外科服务中心的患者队列中，研究了这种假设是否成立。
采用半结构式访谈问卷调查法，对连续就诊的患者队列进行横断面调查，了解他们对艰难神经外科诊断的严重预后全面披露的意见和偏好。
在为期一年半的时间里，共对 109 名患者（74 名男性，占 67.9%）进行了抽样调查。他们主要是年轻的成年人，平均年龄为 40.2 岁（标准差 14.2）；其中超过一半（56%）仅有基本的文化教育程度，但大多数（99.1%）宣称自己有认真的宗教信仰。不到 3%的研究参与者选择不接受他们的医疗坏消息，而大多数希望全面披露他们的医疗诊断的参与者希望在 88%的情况下让他们的亲人在身边，实际上，91%的人不愿意被他们知情的亲人蒙在鼓里。最后，虽然大多数（98%）人认为无法获得任何政府支持，但他们希望通过上帝（88%）和家庭支持（40%）来应对新未来的现实。
这项基于数据的研究表明，与传闻相反，在神经外科实践中，向尼日利亚裔非洲患者群体传达坏消息并非不可忍受。
