Cancer disclosure to friends: Survey on psychological distress and perceived social support provision.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the factors associated with the degree of distress experienced by patients with cancer before disclosing their cancer diagnosis to a friend and their perceptions of social support upon disclosure. METHODS: Adult patients with cancer participated in a cross-sectional Internet-based survey on their behaviour when disclosing their diagnosis to a selected friend, degree of distress before this disclosure and perceived social support upon disclosure. RESULTS: Of 473 eligible respondents, around half were middle-aged (40-59 years) and around half were men. Having a younger age (20-39 years), being a woman and delaying disclosure were factors associated with greater pre-disclosure distress. Most participants perceived receiving emotional support upon disclosure. Telling a close friend or a female friend and early disclosure timing were associated with perceived social support, although this varied by social support type. CONCLUSION: Younger patients and women may need more support in deciding to disclose their cancer diagnosis to friends. Selection of to whom to disclose this information and disclosure timing should be considered to achieve more desirable outcomes. In addition to selective disclosure-including planning and scheduling-communication skills may be required for effectively disclosing a cancer diagnosis and achieving favourable results following this disclosure.

Development and validation of the Cancer Knowledge Scale for the general population: An item response theory approach.

OBJECTIVE: To develop and validate a new measure of cancer knowledge for members of the general population who have never been diagnosed with cancer. METHODS: Initially, 20 items were generated to measure cancer knowledge. After expert refinement and cognitive interviews, 11 items remained and were completed by 1,076 adults with no history of cancer. Responses were assessed using an item response theory (IRT) approach and differential item functioning. RESULTS: Items were analyzed using a two-parameter logistic IRT model. Two items with tetrachoric correlation coefficients>0.8 and one item with a discrimination parameter>2.0 were excluded. The final eight items demonstrated a good range of discrimination (1.13 to 1.86) and difficulty (-1.11 to 0.85). No meaningful differential item functioning by participant attributes was detected for these eight items. CONCLUSION: The Cancer Knowledge Scale appears to be a reliable and valid measure for the general population. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: The eight-item scale could be used to assess the effects of psychoeducational programs, including those on cancer knowledge, for members of the general population with no cancer history.