[Attitude to incurable disease]

To find the opinions and attitudes of our patients regarding questions of incurable disease and death.

A crossover, descriptive study.

2 medical clinics and 2 nursing stations at 2 health centres.

720 patients between 14 and 90 seeking health-care. Sampling of their appropriateness was performed, with systematic daily questionnaires. Known carriers of cancer or AIDS were excluded, as were those with understanding, communication or hearing problems.

A survey was carried out after a pilot period, using a specially composed questionnaire with seven closed questions. The study period was three months. 60.8% of those questioned would be willing to tell a close family member if the latter had an incurable illness; 60.9% would allow a doctor to do so. 69% would want to be told the truth if they suffered an incurable illness, with 57.3% opting for a doctor as spokesperson. 58.6% would prefer to die at home and 31.3% in hospital. Preference for hospital was unconnected to age or fear of pain. 44% pointed to pain as their greatest fear in an incurable illness, followed by 25.7% whose greatest fear was disability.

On the whole, our patients seemed favorable to telling the truth about a hypothetical incurable illness, whether their own or a family member's. The majority would prefer to die at home and mainly fear pain.