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TEHRAN, December 05 -Shame and fear appear to be at the root of this lack of communication, the researchers found.
TEHRAN, Young Journalists Club (YJC) -Shame and fear appear to be at the root of this lack of communication, the researchers found.
As many as 4 out of 5 Americans withhold important information from their doctor that could prove crucial to their health, a new study shows.
Between 60 and 80 percent of people admit they avoid telling their doctor details that could be relevant to their well-being.
"I know at some level this is a 'no duh,' of course, people mislead, but I was surprised how pervasive it is," said senior researcher Angela Fagerlin, chair of population health sciences at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. "A lot of people are not fully honest with their provider. They don't tell them all the information they could tell them."
Shame and fear appear to be at the root of this lack of communication, the researchers found.
Patients don't want to admit that they disagree with their doctor or don't understand what the doctor has told them, Fagerlin said. People also don't want to fess up about their unhealthy behaviors.
But keeping this information secret can lead to some very dire consequences.
American Academy of Family Physicians President Dr. John Cullen recalled a situation years ago when a patient with apparent appendicitis was being prepped for surgery.
"Unfortunately, methamphetamine can sometimes present the same way as appendicitis," said Cullen, a family physician in Valdez, Alaska, with more than 25 years of experience. "As we're getting ready to take him to the operating room, I remember saying, 'We're about to cut you open here. Are you sure you don't want to tell me anything else?'
"That's when we found out about the methamphetamine use," Cullen continued. "Indeed, that was the cause, and we stopped the surgery."
Sharing information can also help doctors prevent drug interactions, or change a patient's treatment plan so he or she will be more likely to comply with it, Fagerlin said.
For the study, Fagerlin and her colleagues surveyed two different pools of patients, 4,510 in all.
One group had an average age of 36, while the other had an average age of 61. The younger group of patients consistently tended to withhold information more often than the older folks, 81 percent and 61 percent, respectively.
The most common thing people don't tell their doctor is that they don't agree with the physician's recommended course of treatment, the researchers found. About 46 percent of people in the younger group and 31 percent in the older group said they'd done this.
Source: upi
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