A Cross-Sectional Street Survey Examining a Preference for Truth-Telling in Serious Illness and End-of-Life in Maputo...

Little is known about how Mozambicans feel about end-of-life preferences, especially their preferences for truth-telling in serious illness.

To understand the end-of-life preferences and priorities of Mozambicans in Maputo City Province and their preferences for truth-telling in serious illness.

A face-to-face community-based street survey was performed with Mozambican nationals, aged ≥18, and fluent in Portuguese.

Using convenience sampling, structured interviews investigated preferences in a hypothetical scenario of serious illness such as cancer. Descriptive analysis examined variations. General data were collected about illness understanding/steps in treatment, experiences/preferences with death, preferences in decision making, and end-of-life priorities.

The sample (n = 397) was stratified by province, age, and gender. Participants were from five districts of Maputo City Province.

The primary analysis was truth-telling. Binary logistic regression analyses were performed to explore the influence of age, gender, education, religion, and ethnicity on preferences for truth-telling. There was a statistically significant association with higher education and all variables examined: assessing the association between education/religion and the preference for truth-telling over all other responses (OR = 3.6, p = 0.002), as well as, education/religion and the preference of truth-telling to the individual, versus family (OR = 3.627, p = 0.020), and the association between education/ethnicity and the preference of telling-telling to the individual, not family (OR = 3.832, p = 0.015). Catholics were more likely to desire truth-telling to the individual versus family (OR = 2.975, p = 0.042).

Those with higher education and Christian religion were more likely to desire doctors to tell the truth about diagnosis.