Mortality Salience and Perceptions of Palliative Care: Does Bringing to Mind Thoughts of Death Affect Clinicians’ and Patients’ Palliative Care Perceptions?

Background: Palliative care (PC) improves the well-being of people with cancer, yet patients may fear it, and clinicians may hesitate to recommend it. We examined whether descriptions of PC varying in mortality salience influence perceptions of the service. Study 1 assessed how these descriptions affected medical students’ thoughts of death and willingness to recommend PC. Study 2 tested their effects on cancer survivors’ perceptions of PC and death anxiety. Method: Medical students ( N = 94) and cancer survivors ( N = 207) were randomized to read a high- or low-mortality-salience PC description adapted from the National Cancer Institute Dictionary of Cancer Terms. Participants rated how much the description evoked thoughts of death. Study 1 assessed medical students’ willingness to recommend PC. Study 2 evaluated cancer survivors’ perceptions of PC and death anxiety. Between-group differences were assessed using t-tests. Results: High mortality-salience descriptions evoked more thoughts of death in both Study 1 ( d = .45, p = .03) and Study 2 ( d = .74, p < .001). Medical students were more likely to recommend PC for terminal versus chronic illness ( t (94) = 8.50, p < .001). In Study 2, cancer survivors exposed to high mortality-salience descriptions reported greater death anxiety ( d = .38, p = .006) and fear of PC ( d = .40, p = .005), though overall PC perceptions did not differ. Conclusions: PC descriptions differing in mortality salience influence death-related thoughts in both clinicians and patients. Findings may guide interventions to reduce barriers to PC.