ArticleBMC medical ethics2024
Family roles in informed consent from the perspective of young Chinese doctors: a questionnaire study.
Article in BMC medical ethics, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 21 papers.
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Who cites it
21 citing papers in PubMed.
- Ethical Challenges in Research Involving Hospitalized Patients: A Phenomenological Study.Health care analysis : HCA : journal of health philosophy and policy · 2026Article
- Factors influencing palliative care decision-making participation among elderly patients in the terminal stage: a cross-sectional study.BMC palliative care · 2026Article
- Reconstructing the boundary of family involvement in shared decision-making: a confucian benevolence model for the Chinese context.BMC medical ethics · 2026Article
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- Family Disclosure of a Cancer Diagnosis to Patients.JAMA network open · 2026Article
- When advance directives clash with family consent: designing an operational framework for end-of-life decision-making in China and Korea.BMC medical ethics · 2026Article
- Caregiver decision-making on pediatric research participation in congenital heart disease in western China: a qualitative study.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
- Bridging perception and reality: understanding Chinese women's behavioral intentions toward robot-assisted gynecologic surgery.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
- The impact of E-health literacy on patient loyalty in county-level public hospitals: the mediating role of value co-creation and the moderating role of perceived social support.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
- Perceptions, needs, and experiences of kinesiophobia management after total knee arthroplasty: a qualitative study from the perspectives of patients, caregivers, and healthcare providers.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
- Patient-Reported Perceptions of Surgical Informed Consent Communication in Elective General Surgery: A Cross-Sectional Study in a Chinese Tertiary Hospital.Patient preference and adherence · 2026Article
- Practical dilemmas and communication reconstruction of patients' right to informed consent under the Civil Code.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
- Insights From a User Experience-Focused Virtual Study on the Feasibility and Challenges of Decentralized Clinical Trials.Clinical and translational science · 2025Article
- Congruence of cancer patients' desired and achieved decision-making roles between self, doctor and family: a cross-sectional multi-site survey.BMC cancer · 2025Article
- Brain tumor patients' rights and the power of patient advocacy: The current international landscape.Neuro-oncology practice · 2025Review
- Culture and context in Interprofessional education: Expectations in Australia and Japan.Medical education · 2025Article
- Family Members' Perspectives on Integrative Chinese-Western Medicine in Cancer Care.Journal of multidisciplinary healthcare · 2025Article
- Article
- The impact of minimum wages on medical expenditures and resource misallocation: evidence from China's healthcare system.Frontiers in public health · 2025Article
- Challenges and strategies for navigating Australian healthcare access: experience from Chinese international students.International journal for equity in health · 2024Article
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2 authors.
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Abstract
backgroundBased on the principle of informed consent, doctors are required to fully inform patients and respect their medical decisions. In China, however, family members usually play a special role in the patient's informed consent, which creates a unique "doctor-family-patient" model of the physician-patient relationship. Our study targets young doctors to investigate the ethical dilemmas they may encounter in such a model, as well as their attitudes to the family roles in informed consent.
methodsA questionnaire was developed including general demographic characteristics, the fulfillment of the obligation to fully inform, who will be informed, and the ethical dilemmas in decision-making. We recruited a total of 421 doctors to complete this questionnaire, of which 368 met the age requirements for this study. Cross tabulation and Pearson's chi-squared test were used to analyze the differences between types of patients for categorical variables, and a p-value < 0.05 was considered statistically significant.
resultsOur data shows that only 20 doctors (5.40%) stated "informing the patient alone is sufficient" when it comes to informing patients of their serious conditions. The rest of the participants would ensure that the family was informed. When facing elderly patients with decision-making capacity, the data was statistically different (3.8%; P < 0.001) The primary reason for ensuring that family members be informed differs among the participants. In addition, when family members asked doctors to conceal the patient's medical condition for the best interests of patients, 270 doctors (73.4%) would agree and cooperate with the family. A similar proportion (79.6%) would do so when it comes to elderly patients.
conclusions(1) Chinese doctors pay extra attention to informing the patient's family, which may not be in the patient's best interests. (2) Chinese doctors treat adult (but not elderly) patients and elderly patients differently when it comes to informing family members. (3) When family members request that doctors withhold information from patients "in the best interest of the patient," the majority choose to comply with the request, although this may cause them distress.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.