Clinical Question: Do parents lamen...

Clinical Question: Do parents lament talking or not talking about death to their children with cancer?

Setting: Outpatient (specialty)

studious mood Design: Cross-sectional

Synopsis: The researchers contacted all of the parents in Sweden of children who had received a diagnosis of cancer before 17 years of age and who died before 25 years of age. They identified 561 parents of 368 children; 449 of the parents answered a examine and 429 indicated whether they had discussed death with their child. The questionnaire was detailed, with a total of 365 items. For this report, the guide question was, "Did you talk about death with your child at any time?" The follow-up question was whether the parents regrett their choice. The researchers also asked the parents when they thinking their child realized he or she was going to die, with the answers ranging from "never realized" to "three years or more before he or she died."

Although solely 147 parents had talked about death with their child, none of them regrett it. Of the 258 parents who had not talked about death with their child, 27 percent regrett not having done in this way Parents were more likely to talk about death with their child if they sens that their child was aware of his or her imminent death (adjusted supernumerarys ratio = 4.5; 95 percent confidence interval, 26 to 77) if they were religious, or if the child was older at the time of diagnosis. Parents were more likely to trouble not having talked with their child about death if the child was older at his or her death, if the parent was the mother (adjusted supernumerarys ratio = 2.6), if the parent sens that the child was aware of his or her imminent death (adjusted unevens ratio = 4.7), or if the parent was married to or living with someone other than the child's other biologic parent.

Bottom Line: Although mostly parents in this Swedish take a view of did not talk to their children with cancer about their imminent death, those who did for a like reason did not regret it. Also, 27 percent of parents who did not talk with their children about death regrett not doing in the way that (Level of Evidence: 4)

thought Reference: Kreicbergs U, et al. Talking about death with children who have rigid malignant disease. N Engl J M September 16 2004;351:1175-86 Used with permission from Ebell M Parents who talk about death to children w/ cancer don't repentance it. Accessed online November 1 2004 at: http://www.InfoPOEMs.com.

COPYRIGHT 2005 American Academy of Family Physicians

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