Background: When attempting to share information about comfort-oriented care, many use "palliative," "supportive," and "hospice" care terminology interchangeably, but we lack evidence about the effects of using these different terms.
Objectives: This study was designed to test whether the use of "palliative," "supportive," or "hospice" terminology can improve the dissemination of information among breast cancer patients-a large and growing oncology population. Design, Setting, and Measurement: This experimental study was conducted at a major U.S. hospital serving a diverse population. Patients visiting a cancer clinic encountered opportunities to learn more about cancer care. They were offered health materials that were described as reporting on "palliative," "supportive," or "hospice" care and the primary outcome was whether a patient decided to select or reject each. As a secondary outcome, the study measured the patient's level of interest in receiving each.
Results: Compared with alternatives, materials labeled as "supportive" care were most likely to be selected and considered valuable (p value <0.01).
Conclusions: In this study, the terminology used had a large effect and, compared with alternatives, the information labeled as being about "supportive" care was significantly more likely to be selected. If these effects are supported by additional research, there may be low-cost, highly feasible changes in language choice that increase the dissemination of relevant health information.
Keywords: behavior change; communication effects; health education; implementation; information dissemination; mass media news coverage; rhetoric.