Public attitudes about lung cancer: stigma, support, and predictors of support

Abstract

IntroductionLung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death, yet public engagement with efforts against lung cancer is low. Public engagement with a cancer is critical to efforts to combat it, yet the reasons for low support for efforts against lung cancer have not been systematically characterized.MethodsWe conducted a telephone survey of 1,071 people to determine levels of engagement and attitudes that might potentially drive engagement. These were then analyzed by univariate and multivariate analysis.ResultsEight percent of participants were involved with a lung cancer organization and 12% chose it among cancers to receive more support. Most participants felt that lung cancer was principally caused by external factors, that it could be cured if caught early, and that lung cancer patients were at least partly to blame for their illness. In multivariate analysis, participants who were supportive in some way of efforts against lung cancer were more likely to be employed, live in suburbia, and to be unsure of the cause of lung cancer. Potential supporters were more likely to be employed, female, younger, have higher income, to believe that genetics is the primary cause of lung cancer, and to believe that lung cancer can be cured when caught early. Participants frequently noted that they supported a particular cancer because of knowing someone affected by that cancer.ConclusionAs the lung cancer movement attempts to grow and increase its impact, the most successful recruitment efforts will be targeted to these groups.

Strengths and resources used by Australian and Danish adult patients and their family caregivers during treatment for cancer

“…The influence of cancer type was not significant, however, a trend was noted with participants in the 'lung cancer' category reporting lower strengths, which is consistent with previous research (Mosher, Given, & Ostroff, 2015). Negative attitudes related to lung cancer including stigma and disease progression, have been linked to patients' negative perception of their personal strengths and ability to recover (Milbury, et al, 2013;Weiss, Stephenson, Edwards, Rigney, & Copeland, 2014). Nurses' awareness of attitudes towards patients and families across all cancer types is important in order to improve their perception of coping with cancer (Mosher, et al, 2015;Udo, Melin-Johansson, Henoch, Axelsson, & Danielson, 2014).…”

An attribution theory perspective on emotional labour in nurse–patient encounters: a nested cross‐sectional study in paediatric settings

“…The process is usually activated in certain situations of serving or helping another person (Weiner 1980a), hence it is introduced in this study as a relevant lens to nurses emotional labour. The attribution process has been shown to affect interactions in various serviceproviding scenarios including health care (Morrow et al 2011, Grayson et al 2014, Weiss et al 2014. Its connection to nurses' emotional labour, however, has only been recently implied (Crego et al 2013) and yet to be fully clear.…”

“…The same nurse might engage deep acting in certain encounters and surface acting in others. The attribution process has been shown to affect interactions in various serviceproviding scenarios including health care (Morrow et al 2011, Grayson et al 2014, Weiss et al 2014. Attribution theory (Weiner 1982) suggests that individuals act as naive psychologists in their desire to understand causes of events.…”

Stigmatic and Sympathetic Attitudes Toward Cancer Patients Who Smoke: A Qualitative Analysis of an Online Discussion Board Forum

“…Conversely, individuals without personal experience may tend toward stigmatization because they are more likely to focus on internal causes of smoking. Indeed, Weiss et al 67 found that lung cancer patient advocates were more likely to know someone who was affected by cancer and more likely to believe that factors other than smoking (ie, genetics) were involved in the development of lung cancer. Thus, the model identified in the current study is consistent with well-established theories of attitude formation, but it applies this theory to a new area of public health.…”