Cancer-Related Stigma and Depression in Cancer Patients in A Middle-Income Country

Abstract

Objective:The aim of the current study are to determine the depression levels of adult oncology patients in the cancer treatment phase and identify both cancer-related stigma and the factors affecting their depression levels.Methods:In this correlational study, 303 adult patients who had been treated at a medical outpatient clinic were surveyed using the convenience sampling method. The “questionnaire for measuring attitudes toward cancer – patient version,” a sociodemographic characteristics questionnaire, and the beck depression inventory were used. A multivariable linear regression model was used for the analysis.Results:The questionnaire and its subscale scores indicated a positive relationship between depression and attitudes toward cancer. The predictive variables for depression were “being younger than 40-year-old” and “feelings of social exclusion,” which accounted for 4% of the total variance. Four factors indicating negative attitudes toward cancer were “being more than 60-year-old,” “higher education,” “low income,” and “feelings of social exclusion,” which accounted for 11% of the total variance.Conclusions:Cancer-related stigma, which underlies patients' emotional and behavioral outlooks, should be reduced in cancer patients. Members of health teams should be sensitive to cancer-related stigma.

Stigma and Quality of Life in Women With Breast Cancer: Mediation and Moderation Model of Social Support, Sense of Coherence, and Coping Strategies

“…Depending on the cancer type and cultural characteristics, the prevalence of perceived stigmatization greatly varies, ranging from 13 to 80% ( Cho et al, 2013 ; Yılmaz et al, 2019 ). About 26% of Iranian patients with cancer are psychologically stressed out by stigma ( Hasan Shiri et al, 2018 ).…”

Perception of Cancer Patients on Chemotherapy Side Effects

“…Research by Khamidah, Indra, and Lita, (2019), also found that the majority of breast cancer patients have a negative stigma against their disease and feel that they will soon die. Research Yılmaz et al, (2019) also found that in Turkish society there is a belief that cancer is incurable, cancer is fatal, patients with cancer are disabled, cancer patients cannot return to work, and cancer sufferers are incompetent. According to the researchers' assumptions, the development of this kind of assumption among the community is due to the often late arrival of cancer patients to health care centers so that they are already in an advanced stage where treatment options are limited and their life expectancy decreases.…”

Impact of stigma and stigma-focused interventions on screening and treatment outcomes in cancer patients

“…In patients with mixed cancer types, negative attitudes toward cancer were associated with being older than 60-year-old, possessing higher education, earning low income and feeling socially excluded [ 90 ]. Some inconsistencies were, however, found in the association between educational level and stigma in the included studies amongst patients with mixed cancer types [ 64 , 90 ].…”

“…Furthermore, it was found that within person, fluctuations in stigma were related to social and role functioning in patients with lung cancer, regardless of physical symptoms and were not carried over to the next day [ 65 ]. Evidence of positive correlation between stigma and anxiety [ 11 , 88 ], depression [ 11 , 23 , 90 , 93 ], higher self-perceived burden [ 88 ], symptom burden [ 93 , 43 ] and affective interferences [ 37 ] were also reported. Body image and social support were found to mediate the relationship between stigma and depression in cancer patients [ 23 , 43 ].…”