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Effects of a Question Prompt Sheet on the Oncologist-Patient Relationship: a Multi-centred Randomised Controlled Trial in Breast Cancer

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Abstract

This study assessed the effect of a question prompt sheet (QPS) on the oncologist-patient relationship as compared with a question listing (QL). In particular, the differences in difficulties perceived by the oncologist during the consultation and in the patient’s experience of the therapeutic aspects of the relationship were assessed. A total of 324 patients with a recent diagnosis of early stage breast cancer were involved in the study. The results showed that 15.7% of patients were perceived as ‘difficult’ by the oncologists. The proportion of ‘difficult’ patients varied in the two groups: 20.6% in the QPS group versus 11.8% in the QL group. The results also showed that the higher the difficulty perceived by oncologists, the lower the satisfaction of patients for their relationship with the oncologists during the consultation (r = − .135, p = .033). It is likely that the higher level of difficulty perceived by the oncologist in the QPS group may be connected with the pre-prepared list of evidence-based questions. Further research is needed to understand which components of the interventions, relating to the patient, the oncologist or their interaction, really promote patient participation in cancer setting. Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT01510964. https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT01510964.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Clinical and Experimental Sciences, Section of Clinical Psychology, University of Brescia, Viale Europa 11, 25123, Brescia, Italy

    Chiara Buizza, Alberto Ghilardi, Paola Mazzardi, Domenico Barbera & Veronica Fremondi

  2. Department of Public Health and Community Medicine, Section of Clinical Psychology, University of Verona, Policlinico G.B. Rossi, Piazzale LA. Scuro 10, 37134, Verona, Italy

    Alessandro Bottacini, Maria Angela Mazzi & Claudia Goss

Authors
  1. Chiara Buizza
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  2. Alberto Ghilardi
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  3. Paola Mazzardi
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  4. Domenico Barbera
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  5. Veronica Fremondi
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  6. Alessandro Bottacini
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  7. Maria Angela Mazzi
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  8. Claudia Goss
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Correspondence to Chiara Buizza.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical Approval

All procedures performed in this study involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the Ethics Committee of the Hospital Trust of Verona and by the Provincial Ethics Committee of Brescia, and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Buizza, C., Ghilardi, A., Mazzardi, P. et al. Effects of a Question Prompt Sheet on the Oncologist-Patient Relationship: a Multi-centred Randomised Controlled Trial in Breast Cancer. J Canc Educ 35, 621–628 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13187-019-01505-6

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