Originally published as JCO Early Release 10.1200/JCO.2007.15.2322 on October 20 2008

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Does Age Really Matter? Recall of Information Presented to Newly Referred Patients With Cancer

Jesse Jansen, Phyllis N. Butow, Julia C.M. van Weert, Sandra van Dulmen, Rhonda J. Devine, Thea J. Heeren, Jozien M. Bensing, Martin H.N. Tattersall

From the Netherlands Institute for Health Services Research, and Department of Health Psychology, Utrecht University, Utrecht; Amsterdam School of Communications Research, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam; Symfora Group, Centers for Mental Health Care, Amersfoort, the Netherlands; and Medical Psychology Research Unit, School of Psychology/Department of Cancer Medicine, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia

Corresponding author: Jesse Jansen, MA, Netherlands Institute for Health Services Research, P.O. Box 1568, 3500 BN Utrecht, The Netherlands; e-mail: j.jansen{at}nivel.nl

Purpose To examine age- and age-related differences in recall of information provided during oncology consultations.

Patients and Methods Two hundred sixty patients with cancer diagnosed with heterogeneous cancers, seeing a medical or radiation oncologist for the first time, participated in the study. Patients completed questionnaires assessing information needs and anxiety. Recall of information provided was measured using a structured telephone interview in which patients were prompted to remember details physicians gave about diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment. Recall was checked against the actual communication in audio-recordings of the consultations.

Results Recall decreased significantly with age, but only when total amount of information presented was taken into account. This indicates that if more information is discussed, older patients have more trouble remembering the information than younger ones. In addition, recall was selectively influenced by prognosis. First, patients with a poorer prognosis recalled less. Next, the more information was provided about prognosis, the less information patients recalled, regardless of their actual prognosis.

Conclusion Recall is not simply a function of patient age. Age only predicts recall when controlling for amount of information presented. Both prognosis and information about prognosis are better predictors of recall than age. These results provide important insights into intervention strategies to improve information recall in patients with cancer.

published online ahead of print at www.jco.org on October 20, 2008

Supported by the Dutch Cancer Society, the René Vogels Foundation, and the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research.

Authors’ disclosures of potential conflicts of interest and author contributions are found at the end of this article.

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