Cultural and linguistic isolation: The breast cancer experience of Chinese-Australian women – A qualitative study

Abstract

In providing information for Chinese-Australian women with breast cancer, culture, language and migration experience need to be taken into account.

What causes breast cancer? A systematic review of causal attributions among breast cancer survivors and how these compare to expert-endorsed risk factors

“…The review suggests that many breast cancer survivors and patients believe that stress contributes to the development of breast cancer. Despite the lack of evidence that stress causes cancer, sixteen studies found that women attributed their breast cancer to their experience of stress [9,13,15,16,24,[35][36][37][38][40][41][42][43][50][51][52].Moreover, stress was identified as the leading cause of breast cancer in five studies [15,35,37,38,42]. In a study by Oba et al, [35] 70% (n=44) of the sample attributed their cancer to stress.…”

“…Four out of the sixteen studies which reported stress-related attributions for breast cancer, specifically defined stress as an inability to cope with a stressful situation, such as relationship conflicts, experience of trauma, dealing with loss or grief, and/or coping with a demanding environment [13,38,42,50]. Some women may rationalize stress as an attribution that is beyond their control.…”

“…Despite the lack of evidence that stress causes cancer, sixteen studies found that women attributed their breast cancer to their experience of stress [9,13,15,16,24,[35][36][37][38][40][41][42][43][50][51][52].Moreover, stress was identified as the leading cause of breast cancer in five studies [15,35,37,38,42]. In a study by Oba et al, [35] 70% (n=44) of the sample attributed their cancer to stress.Four out of the sixteen studies which reported stress-related attributions for breast cancer, specifically defined stress as an inability to cope with a stressful situation, such as relationship conflicts, experience of trauma, dealing with loss or grief, and/or coping with a demanding environment [13,38,42,50]. Some women may rationalize stress as an attribution that is beyond their control.…”

“…God's will) are causes of breast cancer. A total of 15 studies reported that breast cancer patients viewed these factors as causal to their own breast cancer [9,13,14,16,35,36,[39][40][41][42][43]45,50,52,53] attributing their cancer to God's will meant a predetermined future in which cancer treatments would not be curative. They also expressed the stigma that they felt when a diagnosis of cancer was interpreted as "karma" or punishment for their sins by other people who live in their community.…”

“…In addition, individual differences with regards to the experiences of affected women prior to being diagnosed need to be accounted for. For example, some breast cancer survivors who reported having a healthy lifestyle prior to diagnosis indicated that they "don't know" the cause of their condition or relied upon attributions which have no expert consensus to explain their illness.It is noteworthy that in studies in which the sample consisted of women from ethnic minorities living in western countries (e.g., Asian women living in Australia [50], or Canada [53]), beliefs in fatalistic influences as a cause of cancer were common. Some women also attributed their cancer to the stress and pressures of living in 16 a Western country [50].…”