Assessing the cultural differences among Asian and Western cancer patients’ towards their preference on breaking bad news using meta-analysis

Disclosing an unpleasant news on cancer disease to a cancer patient affects their value of life. At this critical stage of diagnosis, patients and their families might lose hopes and ambitions that they had been planning for their future. There are abundance of literature found regarding the study of relationship between the truth telling and the cancer patient. Moreover, different approaches are used for the disclosure including issues of either, how, and how much information to be told to cancer patients, which all these are influenced by countries and cultures. A meta-analysis was performed to get an accurate interpretation of the preferences of cancer patients towards the disclosure of unpleasant news. Besides, Borenstein's approaches were carried out in meta-analysis to perform a quantitative synthesis. A meta-regression analysis was used to compare the preferences among cancer patients from Western and Asian countries. The heterogeneity was verified by Q statistics. Next, the random effects model was performed. Based on the findings obtained, cancer patients from both Western and Asian countries prefer to have a disclosure of the unpleasant news regarding their disease. Moreover, the preferences of the unpleasant news disclosure among Asian patients are affected by their family concerns, but Western patients have more concern on the prognosis of their disease from the doctors.