Strategies of persuasion in offers to participate in cancer clinical trials I: Topic placement and topic framing

Authors

  • Ellen Barton Wayne State University
  • Susan Eggly Wayne State University
  • Andrew Winckles Adrian College
  • Terrance L. Albrecht Wayne State University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1558/cam.v11i1.16614

Keywords:

physician-patient communication, clinical trials, cancer, racial disparities, medical ethics, discourse analysis

Abstract

Clinical trials are the gold standard in medical research evaluating new treatments in cancer care; however, in the United States, too few patients enroll in clinical trials, particularly patients from minority groups. Offering patients the option of a clinical trial is an ethically-charged communicative event for oncologists. One particularly vexed ethical issue is the use of persuasion in offers to participate in clinical trials. Based on a corpus of 22 oncology encounters with Caucasian-American (n=11) and African-American (n=11) patients, this discourse analysis describes oncologists’ use of two persuasive strategies related to the linguistic structure of the encounter—topic placement and topic framing. Findings are presented in total and by patient race, and discussed in terms of whether these strategies may constitute ethical or unethical persuasion, particularly with respect to the ethical issue of undue influence and the social issue of underrepresentation of minorities in cancer clinical trials.

Author Biographies

  • Ellen Barton, Wayne State University
    Ellen Barton is a Professor in the Linguistics Program and Department of English at Wayne State University. Her research interests are in the discourse analysis of ethically-charged communicative events in medicine.
  • Susan Eggly, Wayne State University
    Susan Eggly is an Associate Professor in the Population Studies and Disparities Research Program in the Department of Oncology at Wayne State University and the Karmanos Cancer Institute. Her research interests are in provider–patient communication and racial health disparities.
  • Andrew Winckles, Adrian College
    Andrew Winckles was a Research Assistant on this project. He is currently an Assistant Professor in the CORE Department at Adrian College.
  • Terrance L. Albrecht, Wayne State University
    Terrance L. Albrecht is Associate Center Director for Population Sciences and Professor and Leader of the Population Studies and Disparities Research Program in the Department of Oncology at Wayne State University and the Karmanos Cancer Institute. Her research interests are in physician-patient-family communication and social networks, social support, and health outcomes.

Published

2015-03-16

Issue

Section

Articles

How to Cite

Barton, E., Eggly, S., Winckles, A., & Albrecht, T. L. (2015). Strategies of persuasion in offers to participate in cancer clinical trials I: Topic placement and topic framing. Communication and Medicine, 11(1), 1-14. https://doi.org/10.1558/cam.v11i1.16614

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