Table 4 Representative quotes of barriers to family communication of genetic test results
Communication barriers | Representative quotes |
|---|---|
Protect from worry | “I don’t want to scare them yet. I want to know the answers myself first before I let them know. So I haven’t discussed anything.” – Donna “I think they’re all in another state and … I’ve got a cousin with a brain cancer. It just seemed too close to home at the time to mention it.” – Rachel |
Insignificance of uncertain result | “… the genetic test results didn’t really seem significant enough for sort of more wide-spread communication.” – Matthew |
Difficulty passing on bad news | “I was actually quite sort of anxious about telling them that … only because I guess I felt like I was handing them on potentially bad news for their health.” – Veronica |
Lack of relevance to family member | “He’s got no kids and he’s in America at the moment. We will contact him if something came up, but he’s older than Mum. He’s in his 70’s. So I think it would be little relevance to him.” – Peter |
Distance / No contact | “For my other aunts because I don’t have their contacts or I’m not too close with them, I just can’t tell ‘em.” – Colin |
Family resistance | “I don’t think they all agreed with that … or believing that there was some sort of genetic issue in the family. They probably got a little bit defensive actually, now that I think about it …” – Anna |
Cultural barriers / Taboo subject | “Because in Chinese this is like a taboo topic. You don’t talk about this. It’s a stain on the family.” – Colin |