BACKGROUND Patients who refuse therapy against medical advice may be at risk of adverse health outcomes. We analyzed the impact of therapy refusal and its effect on the survival of retinoblastoma patients. PATIENTS AND METHODS 165 consecutive untreated retinoblastoma patients admitted to the CM-Hospital, between 1993-2000 were evaluated retrospectively. Survival outcomes and its association w...

BACKGROUND Refusal of the oral polio vaccine (OPV) is a difficulty faced by the Polio Eradication Initiative (PEI) in multiple endemic areas, including the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province (KPP), Pakistan. In 2007, we investigated community perceptions of the OPV and estimated the prevalence of OPV refusal in three districts in Swat Valley, KPP, a polio-endemic area. METHODS Qualitative data conce...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE Parental refusal and delay of childhood vaccines has increased in recent years and is believed to cluster in some communities. Such clusters could pose public health risks and barriers to achieving immunization quality benchmarks. Our aims were to (1) describe geographic clusters of underimmunization and vaccine refusal, (2) compare clusters of underimmunization with di...

General practitioners participating in a multipractice study were compared with those who refused to participate. We found that younger doctors, doctors in partnerships, and doctors with many patients were represented more among participants. However, no correlation was found between the number of patients examined for urinary tract infection in connection with the study.

Abstract This paper sets out to unpack the pragmatic structure of refusal—its illocutionary nature, success conditions, and normative effects. I argue that our ordinary concept refusal captures a whole family illocutions, comprising acts such as rejecting, declining, like, which share property being ‘negative second-turn illocutions’. Only proper refusals (i.e. negative replies permission reque...

OBJECTIVE To gain insight into the standards of rationality that physicians use when evaluating patients' treatment refusals. DESIGN OF THE STUDY Qualitative design with in depth interviews. PARTICIPANTS The study sample included 30 patients with cancer and 16 physicians (oncologists and general practitioners). All patients had refused a recommended oncological treatment. RESULTS Patients...

Pretrial detainees have a constitutionally protected right to refuse medical treatment in most circumstances; however, individuals found incompetent to stand trial (IST) due to a mental disorder can be treated involuntarily by clinicians who adhere to careful medical and legal procedures. The process of involuntary treatment of IST pretrial detainees begins with categorization into particular l...