Stigma and its correlates in people living with lung cancer: A cross‐sectional study from China

Abstract

Objectives: This study aimed to examine the level of stigma and identify the correlates of stigma among lung cancer patients in China.Methods: In total, 283 lung cancer patients were recruited from a tertiary cancer center in China by the convenience sampling method and completed a demographic, disease-related information and situational characteristics questionnaire and selfreported measures assessing stigma, state self-esteem, and coping self-efficacy.Results: The mean stigma score was moderate (2.38 ± 0.45). Stigma was significantly and negatively associated with state self-esteem (r = -0.607, P < .001) and coping self-efficacy (r = -0.424, P < .001). Multivariable linear regression showed that age, cancer stage, negative changes (ie, in financial burden, body image, and family relationship), cancer disclosure, perceived blame, state self-esteem, and coping selfefficacy accounted for 49.9% of the variance in stigma.Conclusions: Stigma is a widespread psychosocial phenomenon among patients with lung cancer in China. Health care policy-makers and professionals should pay more attention to this issue and take effective measures to address stigma among lung cancer patients by improving their state self-esteem and coping self-efficacy, encouraging cancer disclosure and providing support for adjusting to negative changes after diagnosis.

Stigma after being newly diagnosed with acute leukemia: the contributing factors among those patients

“…Higher stigma experiencing was found in male patients than female, particularly in youth aged 18 ~ 44. That results were consistent with previous qualitative [39], quantitative studies [25,40] or systematic review [13]. Male individuals, under the age of 18 ~ 44 was actively involved in their life.…”

“…Among them, the greatest contributor was acceptance-resignation, followed by confrontation (Table 3). [11,24,25] that using SIS to assess stigma of HIV or cancer. As compared to latest studies of them, AL patients scored higher than lung cancer [13] and prostate cancer [14], but lower than HIV [11], colorectal cancer with stoma [12] and breast cancer [14].…”

“…After diagnosed as AL, they may experience a variety of practical, social, emotional, and existential concerns due to the disease, side effects of treatments, and poor prognosis [22]. As to AL patients, it's quite clear that positive coping is associated with higher QOL, reduced depressive symptoms and better clinical outcomes [23], while negative coping responses were found to be associated with greater stigma [24,25]. When people adopt positive coping skills, like being active in seeking for solutions or feeling con dent in their coping strategies, stigma decreases [26].…”

Lung cancer stigma is a predictor for psychological distress: A longitudinal study. Lung cancer stigma is a predictor for psychological distress

“…People with lung cancer report high levels of psychological distress 15 . In particular, lung cancer stigma has been found to be associated with a number of outcomes related to psychological distress such as depression, poor health‐related quality of life, low coping self‐efficacy and greater symptom burden 11,16–19 . Findings from longitudinal studies of lung cancer populations suggest psychological distress can be enduring or heightened over the cancer trajectory.…”

Reducing Implicit Cognitive Biases Through the Performing Arts

“…Studies in patients under negative health conditions showed they feel stigmatized and reported feelings of exclusion, rejection or devaluation (Weiss et al, 2006). Stigma-induced discrimination in turn, has been associated with different negative outcomes such as more psychological distress (Berjot and Gillet, 2011), more depressive symptoms (Roberts et al, 2020) less self-esteem (Liu et al, 2020) and the reduction of perceived quality of life (Chambers et al, 2012(Chambers et al, , 2015.…”