Lay people's psychological reactions and helping intention after friends’ cancer disclosure: An exploratory analysis using vignettes

Abstract

Objectives Stigma, anticipated responses from others, and their relationships may affect patients’ decision‐making of cancer disclosure. However, little research has explored responses to cancer disclosure and the outcome from receivers’ perspectives who had stereotypic views of cancer. This vignette study aimed to explore how lay people with negative attitude to cancer would react to the friend's cancer disclosure. Methods A cross‐sectional survey study was conducted in community organisations. Of 161 recruited, 91 participants returned their questionnaires (56.5% of response rate). A total of 88 responses to open‐ended questions were qualitatively analysed. Results Thematic analysis extracted four themes: ‘Initial emotional reactions and the acceptance of the friend’s cancer diagnosis’; ‘Empathy, trust and helping intention’; ‘Sharing informational and emotional support provision’; and ‘Offering help, but waiting and seeing the friend's request.’ As a result of comparison to these themes by the participants’ familiarity of cancer patients in their real life, it was found that participants, who had not known any cancer patients, did not report the acceptance of the friends’ cancer diagnosis and informational support provision to share. Conclusion Intervention for lay people who felt difficulty with accepting friends’ cancer diagnosis may be helpful to reduce the impact of friends’ cancer diagnosis.

Social stigma associated with cancer in the Newfoundland and Labrador population: an exploratory study

“…Research investigating stigma-related experiences of patients with cancer with their friends is limited. However, negatively affected friendships were detected in other populations 38 , and one study suggested that the hardship in accepting a friend's cancer diagnosis could be a factor in this 39 . Further studies examining this in the NL population can help us identify the root cause and thus enable formulation of effective ways of minimizing friendship loss and its negative consequence on individuals diagnosed with cancer.…”

Cancer disclosure to friends: Survey on psychological distress and perceived social support provision

“…The same study also reported that support from friends helped to decrease depressive symptoms among young adults (Fukuoka & Hashimoto, 1997). Research about illness‐disclosure behaviour among informal caregivers, however, has almost exclusively investigated patient–partner relationships, with little attention paid to patient–friend relationships (Tsuchiya, 2019).…”