A cancer attitude survey among medical undergraduates in Hong Kong

A cancer attitude survey was administered to a cohort of 152 final-year medical undergraduates in Hong Kong from mid-1988 to mid-1990, on the first and last days of a four-week oncology module. Significant differences in pre- and post-module scores suggest that the course had significant impact on attitudes toward early diagnosis, treatment aggressiveness, and acceptance of death. The changes are generally regarded by the teachers as desirable. Comparison with a similar survey performed ten years earlier on a group of American second-year medical undergraduates shows significant differences in most of the pre-course scores. Factor analysis shows that the items in the survey could not be readily categorized by a limited number of factors, thus casting doubt on the validity of the instrument in reflecting attitudinal attributes as described in the original survey.