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Public perceptions of changing the terminology for low-risk thyroid cancer: a qualitative focus group study
OBJECTIVES: To investigate public perceptions of overdiagnosis and overtreatment in low-risk thyroid cancer and explore opinions regarding the proposed strategy to change the terminology of low-risk cancers. DESIGN: Qualitative study using focus groups that included a guided group discussion and pre...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
BMJ Publishing Group
2019
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6377531/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30813118 http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2018-025820 |
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author | Nickel, Brooke Semsarian, Caitlin Moynihan, Ray Barratt, Alexandra Jordan, Susan McLeod, Donald Brito, Juan P McCaffery, Kirsten |
author_facet | Nickel, Brooke Semsarian, Caitlin Moynihan, Ray Barratt, Alexandra Jordan, Susan McLeod, Donald Brito, Juan P McCaffery, Kirsten |
author_sort | Nickel, Brooke |
collection | PubMed |
description | OBJECTIVES: To investigate public perceptions of overdiagnosis and overtreatment in low-risk thyroid cancer and explore opinions regarding the proposed strategy to change the terminology of low-risk cancers. DESIGN: Qualitative study using focus groups that included a guided group discussion and presentation explaining thyroid cancer, overdiagnosis and overtreatment, and proposed communication strategies. Transcripts were analysed thematically. SETTING: Sydney, Australia. PARTICIPANTS: Forty-seven men and women of various ages from a range of socioeconomic backgrounds with no personal history of thyroid cancer. RESULTS: Participants had low pre-existing general awareness of concepts of overdiagnosis and overtreatment and expressed concern regarding this new information in relation to thyroid cancer. Overall, participants understood why the strategy to change the terminology was being proposed and could see potential benefits including reducing the negative psychological impact and stigma associated with the term ‘cancer’; however, many still had reservations about the strategy. The majority of the concerns were around their worry about the risk of further disease progression and that changing the terminology may create confusion and cause patients not to take the diagnosis and its associated managements seriously. Despite varied views towards the proposed strategy, there was a strong overarching desire for greater patient and public education around overdiagnosis and overtreatment in both thyroid cancer and cancer generally in order to complement any revised terminology and/or other mitigation strategies. CONCLUSIONS: We found a strong and apparently widely held desire for more information surrounding the topic of overdiagnosis and overtreatment. Careful consideration of how to inform both the public and current patients about the implications of a change in terminology, including changes to patients’ follow-up or treatments, would be needed if such a change were to go ahead. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-6377531 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2019 |
publisher | BMJ Publishing Group |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-63775312019-03-05 Public perceptions of changing the terminology for low-risk thyroid cancer: a qualitative focus group study Nickel, Brooke Semsarian, Caitlin Moynihan, Ray Barratt, Alexandra Jordan, Susan McLeod, Donald Brito, Juan P McCaffery, Kirsten BMJ Open Qualitative Research OBJECTIVES: To investigate public perceptions of overdiagnosis and overtreatment in low-risk thyroid cancer and explore opinions regarding the proposed strategy to change the terminology of low-risk cancers. DESIGN: Qualitative study using focus groups that included a guided group discussion and presentation explaining thyroid cancer, overdiagnosis and overtreatment, and proposed communication strategies. Transcripts were analysed thematically. SETTING: Sydney, Australia. PARTICIPANTS: Forty-seven men and women of various ages from a range of socioeconomic backgrounds with no personal history of thyroid cancer. RESULTS: Participants had low pre-existing general awareness of concepts of overdiagnosis and overtreatment and expressed concern regarding this new information in relation to thyroid cancer. Overall, participants understood why the strategy to change the terminology was being proposed and could see potential benefits including reducing the negative psychological impact and stigma associated with the term ‘cancer’; however, many still had reservations about the strategy. The majority of the concerns were around their worry about the risk of further disease progression and that changing the terminology may create confusion and cause patients not to take the diagnosis and its associated managements seriously. Despite varied views towards the proposed strategy, there was a strong overarching desire for greater patient and public education around overdiagnosis and overtreatment in both thyroid cancer and cancer generally in order to complement any revised terminology and/or other mitigation strategies. CONCLUSIONS: We found a strong and apparently widely held desire for more information surrounding the topic of overdiagnosis and overtreatment. Careful consideration of how to inform both the public and current patients about the implications of a change in terminology, including changes to patients’ follow-up or treatments, would be needed if such a change were to go ahead. BMJ Publishing Group 2019-02-05 /pmc/articles/PMC6377531/ /pubmed/30813118 http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2018-025820 Text en © Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2019. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ. This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited, appropriate credit is given, any changes made indicated, and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/. |
spellingShingle | Qualitative Research Nickel, Brooke Semsarian, Caitlin Moynihan, Ray Barratt, Alexandra Jordan, Susan McLeod, Donald Brito, Juan P McCaffery, Kirsten Public perceptions of changing the terminology for low-risk thyroid cancer: a qualitative focus group study |
title | Public perceptions of changing the terminology for low-risk thyroid cancer: a qualitative focus group study |
title_full | Public perceptions of changing the terminology for low-risk thyroid cancer: a qualitative focus group study |
title_fullStr | Public perceptions of changing the terminology for low-risk thyroid cancer: a qualitative focus group study |
title_full_unstemmed | Public perceptions of changing the terminology for low-risk thyroid cancer: a qualitative focus group study |
title_short | Public perceptions of changing the terminology for low-risk thyroid cancer: a qualitative focus group study |
title_sort | public perceptions of changing the terminology for low-risk thyroid cancer: a qualitative focus group study |
topic | Qualitative Research |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6377531/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30813118 http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2018-025820 |
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