Introduction:

The lack of medical information can be harmful for the psychological adjustment of oncological patients, as symptoms of anxiety and depression could appear.

Objective:

To analyze the relationship between the levels of medical information about the diagnosis, prognostic and treatment, and symptoms of anxiety and depression in a sample of patients with breast cancer.

Materials and method:

Cross-sectional study with 131 women with breast cancer who were assessed by a semi structured interview to evaluate the sociodemographic and clinical data and levels of medical information. In addition, The Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale was used. The participants were recruited by non-probability sampling in four public hospitals of Spain. The statistical analysis were realized through SPSS.

Results:

The data obtained showed that the lack of information about the diagnosis, prognosis and treatment was related to symptoms of depression and poor general emotional well-being. Moreover, the incompressibility of the medical information was related to depression. However, the symptoms of anxiety were not statistically significant between these variables.

Conclusions:

The medical information that breast cancer patients receive about their illness, the prognosis and treatment affects emotional well-being and this is important to be considerate by medical team. MÉD.UIS. 2017;30(3):13-20.

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