1
|
Jibril MB, Sambo MN, Sulaiman H, Musa HS, Musa A, Shuaibu ZB, Aminu L, Wada YH, Ahmed A. Optimizing primary healthcare experience: assessing client satisfaction in Kaduna State, Northwest Nigeria. BMC PRIMARY CARE 2024; 25:231. [PMID: 38926674 PMCID: PMC11210089 DOI: 10.1186/s12875-024-02481-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/30/2023] [Accepted: 06/19/2024] [Indexed: 06/28/2024]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Client satisfaction is a multidimensional construct focusing on clients' perceptions and evaluations of the treatment and care received. It is one of the factors affecting the outcomes of healthcare and the use of health services. Therefore, we aimed to assess clients' satisfaction with PHC services in Kaduna State, Northwest Nigeria. METHODOLOGY A cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted in Kaduna State, Northwest, Nigeria which evaluate the satisfaction of clients and caregivers accessing healthcare in PHC centres. A sample size of 217 was determined using Fisher's formula, with a multi-stage sampling technique used to randomly select eligible respondents, who have accessed at least a PHC service in any of the PHCs in the State were included in the study, A semi-structured, interviewer-administered questionnaire was administered, and the data collected was analyzed using SPSS version 23.0. Appropriate statistical tests were used to examine the association between dependent and independent variables, while predictor variables that showed significant association with the outcome variables were further subjected to logistic regression analysis, to determine factors that affect clients' satisfaction with PHC services. Statistical significance was determined at an alpha level set at 0.05 at a 95% confidence interval. RESULTS Thirty-one percent of the respondents were satisfied with PHC services in Kaduna State with a mean composite satisfaction score of 3.78 ± 0.67. Age, ethnicity, level of education, and occupational status were factors affecting clients' satisfaction with PHC services among the respondents. On multivariate analysis, age, ethnicity, educational status, and occupational status were significant factors affecting clients' satisfaction with PHC services. Clients of Hausa/Fulani extraction are one and a half times less likely to be satisfied with PHC services when compared to clients from other tribes [aOR = 1.5, 95% CI (1.21-4.67); p = 0.003]. In terms of educational status, clients with formal education are one and a one-third times more likely to be satisfied [aOR = 1.3, 95% CI (0.17-0.94)] with PHC service when compared with their counterparts with informal education (p = 0.034). CONCLUSION Clients' satisfaction with PHC services in Kaduna State, Northwest Nigeria was sub-optimal. Healthcare providers were recommended to improve their attitude bearing in mind clients' peculiarities.
Collapse
|
2
|
Tu J, Uretsky E, Kang L, Yuan J, Zhong J. 'It's not within my control': local explanations for the development of lung cancer in China. HEALTH SOCIOLOGY REVIEW : THE JOURNAL OF THE HEALTH SECTION OF THE AUSTRALIAN SOCIOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION 2022; 31:326-341. [PMID: 35731936 DOI: 10.1080/14461242.2022.2085056] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/24/2021] [Accepted: 05/29/2022] [Indexed: 06/15/2023]
Abstract
Rates of lung cancer in China are rising rapidly, creating an urgent need for prevention. Effective prevention measures require understanding local beliefs and perceptions about the risk for developing lung cancer. This article explores the explanations that Chinese lung cancer patients and their families give about the aetiology of their disease. Fifty-three interviews were conducted among lung cancer patients and their family members at a large tumour hospital in southern China. Participants presented a complex multifactorial explanation of lung cancer associating their disease with risks like tobacco use, occupational exposures, environmental pollution, lifestyle changes, and personal characters. While these are all standard risk factors commonly associated with lung cancer, participants presented them within a larger contextual frame of structural issues that impede their ability to change their behaviours. Using a social ecological model, we demonstrate how China's socio-cultural environment shapes assumptions about the risk of lung cancer with particular reference to work, home, social situations, and the natural environment.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Jiong Tu
- School of Sociology and Anthropology, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, People's Republic of China
| | - Elanah Uretsky
- East Asian Studies, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA, USA
| | - Lu Kang
- Department of Thoracic Surgery, Sun Yat-Sen University Cancer Center, Guangzhou, People's Republic of China
| | - Juan Yuan
- Department of Thoracic Surgery, Sun Yat-Sen University Cancer Center, Guangzhou, People's Republic of China
| | - Jiudi Zhong
- Department of Thoracic Surgery, Sun Yat-Sen University Cancer Center, Guangzhou, People's Republic of China
| |
Collapse
|
3
|
Ventura-Garcia L. "You will ask me: which am I?": the clinical practice of Chagas as a latent risk. CIENCIA & SAUDE COLETIVA 2022; 27:871-879. [PMID: 35293465 DOI: 10.1590/1413-81232022273.33482020] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/05/2020] [Accepted: 12/23/2020] [Indexed: 11/22/2022] Open
Abstract
Drawing on observation-based ethnography, interviews of health personnel and document review, this article describes and examines how, in clinical handling of Chagas disease, infection is treated as latent risk. It suggests that how this risk is managed has enabled a clinical practice to be conducted among people classified as at the indeterminate stage, by adding a dimension of possibility (Is it going to happen?) and potentiality (When and where?). This allows measures to be taken, including administration of medication or permanent monitoring. The reification of latent risk as a phenomenon that is manageable through a process of medicalisation engages, in turn, with other conceptions and specific experiences of risk among the affected groups. Framing the clinical practices deployed to address this risk as objects of study is a first step towards being able to describe and include them concretely in health system organisation.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Laia Ventura-Garcia
- Medical Anthropology Research Center, Universitat Rovira i Virgili. Av. da Catalunya 35. 43002 Tarragona Espanha.
| |
Collapse
|
4
|
Affiliation(s)
- Ignacia Arteaga
- Department of Social Anthropology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
| | - Sahra Gibbon
- Department of Anthropology, University College London, London, UK
| | - Anne Lanceley
- Women's Cancer Care at the Ega Institute for Women's Health, University College London, London, UK
| |
Collapse
|
5
|
Huang HY. "Lifestyle, finitude, or inequality?": Illness explanation in Kathlyn Conway's and Arthur Frank's cancer memoirs. Health (London) 2021; 26:663-678. [PMID: 34674571 DOI: 10.1177/13634593211054009] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/15/2022]
Abstract
The lifestyle model, which attributes etiological power and moral responsibility to the individual, is dominant in health promotion discourse. While sociologists rightly critique this model's individualistic outlook, there has been insufficient distinction between the two anti-individualistic models that commonly inform their work: the well-known "sociological model" and the culturally influential but under-conceptualized model tentatively called the "finitude model." Not only is there insufficient awareness of the different etiological causes (inequality and human fragility) and political orientations (redistribution and recognition) underlying the sociological and finitude models, but there is also insufficient recognition of how the finitude model may inform illness explanation. To raise awareness about the existence and analytical utility of the finitude model, I elucidate its core assumptions through a brief review of some influential texts in late-modern health politics. Further, I illustrate the empirical utility of the notion of the finitude model by analyzing how it is used to explain illness in Arthur Frank's and Kathlyn Conway's influential cancer memoirs. Thematic analysis of the memoirs produces two major findings. First, Frank and Conway rely on the finitude model to claim victimhood and blame the blamers. Second, they seem unaware of the double-edged character of such a model, which tends to downplay how social inequality shapes health. My analysis reveals the one-sidedness of both the finitude and sociological models, and that any illness explanation therefore needs to integrate both anti-individualistic models to challenge the lifestyle model successfully.
Collapse
|
6
|
Do TT, Whittaker A. Contamination, suffering and womanhood: Lay explanations of breast cancer in Central Vietnam. Soc Sci Med 2020; 266:113360. [PMID: 32979625 DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2020.113360] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Revised: 09/07/2020] [Accepted: 09/08/2020] [Indexed: 10/23/2022]
Abstract
Breast cancer has become the most frequent cancer among women in Vietnam, claiming over 6000 lives a year. In this article we investigate how laypeople explain the causes of this pressing health issue based on an ethnographic study conducted in the Central region of Vietnam in 2019, including hospital observation, interviews with 33 breast cancer patients and focus groups with 21 laypeople. Our findings show that their knowledge of causation is mediated through historical social contexts of warfare, a rapacious market economy, poverty, and cultural configurations of gender roles. Contamination of the environment and food, use of chemicals, failure to follow postpartum practices, breast ailments, and worry are understood to be immediate determinants of breast cancer. These popular accounts are unlikely to recognize biomedical narratives of breast cancer risk that focus upon individual responsibility and lifestyle factors because they may not reflect the lived realities of women. We emphasise the implications for public awareness campaigns to meaningfully engage with the situated social and cultural specificities of breast cancer.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Trang Thu Do
- Faculty of Arts, School of Social Sciences, Monash University, Australia.
| | - Andrea Whittaker
- Faculty of Arts, School of Social Sciences, Monash University, Australia
| |
Collapse
|
7
|
Sidenius A, Manderson L, Mogensen O, Rudnicki M, Møller LMA, Hansen HP. “But this is a good cancer:” Patient perceptions of endometrial cancer in Denmark. J Clin Nurs 2018; 28:245-256. [DOI: 10.1111/jocn.14615] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/16/2018] [Revised: 05/29/2018] [Accepted: 07/03/2018] [Indexed: 12/30/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Anne Sidenius
- Research Unit of General Practice Department of Public Health Faculty of Health Sciences University of Southern Denmark Odense C Denmark
- Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics University Hospital of Zealand Roskilde Denmark
| | - Lenore Manderson
- School of Public Health University of the Witwatersrand Johannesburg South Africa
- The Institute at Brown for Environment & Society (IBES) Brown University Providence Rhode Island
| | - Ole Mogensen
- Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology Karolinska University Hospital Stockholm Sweden
- Research Unit of Gynaecology and Obstetrics (RUGO) Department of Clinical Research Faculty of Health Sciences University of Southern Denmark Odense CDenmark
| | - Martin Rudnicki
- Department of Gynaecology and Obstetrics University Hospital Odense Odense C Denmark
| | | | - Helle Ploug Hansen
- Research Unit of General Practice Department of Public Health Faculty of Health Sciences University of Southern Denmark Odense C Denmark
| |
Collapse
|
8
|
Schumacher L, Armaou M, Rolf P, Sadhra S, Sutton AJ, Zarkar A, Grunfeld EA. Usefulness and engagement with a guided workbook intervention (WorkPlan) to support work related goals among cancer survivors. BMC Psychol 2017; 5:34. [PMID: 28978353 PMCID: PMC5628479 DOI: 10.1186/s40359-017-0203-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/24/2017] [Accepted: 09/08/2017] [Indexed: 11/25/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Returning to work after cancer is associated with improved physical and psychological functioning, but managing this return can be a challenging process. A workbook based intervention (WorkPlan) was developed to support return-to-work among cancer survivors. The aim of this study was to explore how participants using the workbook engaged with the intervention and utilised the content of the intervention in their plan to return-to-work. METHODS As part of a feasibility randomised controlled trial, 23 participants from the intervention group were interviewed 4-weeks post intervention. Interviews focussed on intervention delivery and data was analysed using Framework analysis. RESULTS Participants revealed a sense of empowerment and changes in their outlook as they transitioned from patient to employee, citing the act of writing as a medium for creating their own return-to-work narrative. Participants found the generation of a return-to-work plan useful for identifying potential problems and solutions, which also served as a tool for aiding discussion with the employer on return-to-work. Additionally, participants reported feeling less uncertain and anxious about returning to work. Timing of the intervention in coordination with ongoing cancer treatments was crucial to perceived effectiveness; participants identified the sole or final treatment as the ideal time to receive the intervention. CONCLUSIONS The self-guided workbook supports people diagnosed with cancer to build their communication and planning skills to successfully manage their return-to-work. Further research could examine how writing plays a role in this process. TRIAL REGISTRATION Current Controlled Trials ISRCTN56342476 . Retrospectively registered 14 October 2015.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Lauren Schumacher
- Coventry University, Centre for Innovative Research Across the Life Course, Coventry, UK
| | - Maria Armaou
- Coventry University, Centre for Innovative Research Across the Life Course, Coventry, UK
| | - Pauline Rolf
- Coventry University, Centre for Innovative Research Across the Life Course, Coventry, UK
| | - Steven Sadhra
- University of Birmingham, Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Institute of Clinical Sciences, Birmingham, UK
| | | | - Anjali Zarkar
- University Hospitals Birmingham National Health Service Foundation Trust, Oncology, Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham, UK
| | | |
Collapse
|
9
|
Lorcy A. « Manger santé » et être en quête de plaisir pendant un cancer. ANTHROPOLOGIE ET SANTÉ 2016. [DOI: 10.4000/anthropologiesante.2339] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
|
10
|
Abstract
Previous work in the anthropology of cancer often examined causes, risks, and medical, familial, and embodied relationships created by the disease. Recent writing has expanded that focus, attending to cancer as a “total social fact” ( Jain 2013 ) and dissecting the landscape of “carcinogenic relationships” ( Livingston 2012 ). Cancer-driven relationships become subjectively real through individual suffering, stigma, and inequality. This article traces concepts developed from a primarily US-centered discourse to a global cancer discourse, including cancer-related issues continuing to raise concern such as stigma, narrative moments of critical reflection on the dominance of biomedicine, and processes by which individuals and communities manage inadequate access to biomedical technologies. Beyond the medical relations and politics of cancer, this article considers the ways in which ethnography addresses local moral worlds and differences that come to matter in attending to the disease, the person, and consequent social and material relations.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Juliet McMullin
- Division of Clinical Sciences, School of Medicine, University of California, Riverside, California 92521
| |
Collapse
|
11
|
Achimaş-Cadariu P, Iancu M, Kubelac P, Pop F, Braicu I, Vlad C, Oskay-Özcelik G, Sehouli J. Expectations and perspectives of ovarian cancer patients about cancer management in Romania. The international NOGGO-ENGOT trial: EXPRESSION III. Eur J Cancer Care (Engl) 2016; 26. [PMID: 27507600 DOI: 10.1111/ecc.12566] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 07/15/2016] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
We have investigated a relational model of expectations and preferences among ovarian cancer patients centred on physician-patient communication, treatment approach, and the need for information. Consecutive patients anonymously filled in the EXPRESSION III questionnaire between 2009 and 2012. Following descriptive statistics, structural equation modelling was used to analyse the relationships between physician's evaluation by the patient (PEP), result of therapy (RT), need for changes in treatment (NCT) and patient's desire to be informed (PD). From a total of 108 patients, 53 (49.1%) knew their disease stage, 103 (95.4%) underwent surgery, 91 (84.3%) had chemotherapy and 51 (46.3%) relapsed. The final model demonstrated a good fit of data with fit indices >0.90. There was a significant positive effect of PEP on RT and a significant negative effect of PEP on NCT, with the final model explaining 84% of the NCT variance. Physicians represent the main point of contact, not only as a source of information about the disease and various treatment options, but also in the coping processes. As patients benefit from completeness of medical consultations, their awareness of the treatment outcome increases, while a negative perception of the physician leads to a desire to make changes in therapy.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- P Achimaş-Cadariu
- Department of Surgery, The Oncology Institute Ion Chiricuţă, Cluj-Napoca, Romania.,Department of Surgery and Gynecologic Oncology, Iuliu Hațieganu University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Cluj-Napoca, Romania
| | - M Iancu
- Department of Medical Informatics and Biostatistics, Faculty of Medicine, "Iuliu Hatieganu" University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Cluj-Napoca, Romania
| | - P Kubelac
- Department of Medical Oncology, The Oncology Institute Ion Chiricuţă, Cluj-Napoca, Romania
| | - F Pop
- Department of Psychology, The Oncology Institute Ion Chiricuţă, Cluj-Napoca, Romania
| | - I Braicu
- Department of Gynecology, Campus Virchow Klinikum, Charité Medical University, Berlin, Germany.,North-Eastern German Society of Gynecological Oncology (NOGGO), Berlin, Germany
| | - C Vlad
- Department of Surgery, The Oncology Institute Ion Chiricuţă, Cluj-Napoca, Romania.,Department of Surgery and Gynecologic Oncology, Iuliu Hațieganu University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Cluj-Napoca, Romania
| | - G Oskay-Özcelik
- Department of Gynecology, Campus Virchow Klinikum, Charité Medical University, Berlin, Germany.,North-Eastern German Society of Gynecological Oncology (NOGGO), Berlin, Germany
| | - J Sehouli
- Department of Gynecology, Campus Virchow Klinikum, Charité Medical University, Berlin, Germany.,North-Eastern German Society of Gynecological Oncology (NOGGO), Berlin, Germany
| |
Collapse
|
12
|
Gibson AF, Lee C, Crabb S. ‘Take ownership of your condition’: Australian women’s health and risk talk in relation to their experiences of breast cancer. HEALTH RISK & SOCIETY 2015. [DOI: 10.1080/13698575.2015.1032215] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/23/2022]
|
13
|
Fryer C, Mackintosh S, Stanley M, Crichton J. Qualitative studies using in-depth interviews with older people from multiple language groups: methodological systematic review. J Adv Nurs 2011; 68:22-35. [DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2648.2011.05719.x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/01/2022]
|
14
|
Bell K. Cancer survivorship, mor(t)ality and lifestyle discourses on cancer prevention. SOCIOLOGY OF HEALTH & ILLNESS 2010; 32:349-364. [PMID: 19891617 DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-9566.2009.01198.x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 26] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/28/2023]
Abstract
Despite ongoing controversies regarding the impact of lifestyle factors such as body weight, diet and exercise on health, this framework has become increasingly prominent in understandings of cancer aetiology. To date, little consideration has been given to the impacts of such discourses on people with a history of cancer. Drawing on an ethnographic study of cancer survivors, I explore the constitutive dimensions of these discourses and the ways that they shape the subjectivities of women and men with a history of the disease. Overall, the study participants evidenced a complex and ambivalent engagement with such discourses. While they were generally unwilling to accept that their lifestyle had an impact on the development of their cancer, to varying degrees they endorsed the idea that weight, diet and exercise affected cancer progression. However, this acceptance was generally borne of an active desire to gain control over the uncertainty of living with the disease and was mediated by other aspects of the experience of surviving cancer.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Kirsten Bell
- Department of Anthropology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada.
| |
Collapse
|
15
|
Abstract
Gynecologic cancers often place a heavy emotional and physical burden on patients. However, there is a lack of information about the types of supportive care needs that these patients have, the services that are available, and whether patients want help with their needs. The aims of this cross-sectional, descriptive study were to (1) identify the supportive care needs (physical, emotional, social, spiritual, psychological, informational, and practical) of women with gynecologic cancer who attended a comprehensive, outpatient cancer center in Ontario, Canada, and (2) determine if patients wanted assistance in meeting those needs. A total of 103 patients participated in this study by completing a self-report questionnaire. Sixty-five of the women were no longer on treatment at the time of completing the survey. Eight of the top 10 most frequently reported needs were non physical, such as fears about the cancer returning or spreading. The data indicated that a range of needs remained unmet for this patient group. However, identifying the presence of a need did not necessarily mean that a patient wanted to have assistance with the need. Suggestions for practice and future research are offered to assist healthcare professionals in providing care to these patients.
Collapse
|
16
|
Wray N, Markovic M, Manderson L. "Researcher saturation": the impact of data triangulation and intensive-research practices on the researcher and qualitative research process. QUALITATIVE HEALTH RESEARCH 2007; 17:1392-1402. [PMID: 18000078 DOI: 10.1177/1049732307308308] [Citation(s) in RCA: 46] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/25/2023]
Abstract
Theoretically and methodologically sound qualitative research demands an extended period of fieldwork and the use of multiple methods to achieve data saturation and develop the grounded theory. Little is known about the experiences of researchers who conduct such studies. The authors explore these matters by drawing on their experiences of conducting a 3-year qualitative study with women about their gynecological cancer journey. Their fieldwork consisted of participant observation and in-depth interviews with women and health professionals. They demonstrate that researchers who are involved in all phases of emotionally demanding research; that is, data collection (recruiting, observing, expanding field notes, and interviewing), transcription, and data analysis repeatedly relive difficult events, which might potentially compromise the researchers' well-being and, in turn, the research process and data validity. The authors discuss how researchers can deal effectively with these matters during fieldwork and propose a more formal approach to debriefing.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Natalie Wray
- School of Psychology, Psychiatry and Psychological Medicine, Monash University, Australia
| | | | | |
Collapse
|
17
|
Wray N, Markovic M, Manderson L. Discourses of normality and difference: Responses to diagnosis and treatment of gynaecological cancer of Australian women. Soc Sci Med 2007; 64:2260-71. [PMID: 17399878 DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2007.02.034] [Citation(s) in RCA: 85] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/29/2006] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
By comparison to other cancers such as breast and lung cancer, women in Australia are relatively infrequently diagnosed with gynaecological cancers. Apart from cervical cancer, public health information on gynaecological cancer is limited, as are published stories from gynaecological cancer survivors in women's magazines. Our qualitative study investigated how women with gynaecological cancers develop an identity in relation to their illness, and examined the extent of, and reasons for, a sense of perceived difference. The study was conducted between 2001 and 2003 and included in-depth interviews with 52 women aged 27-80 years diagnosed with gynaecological cancer within the past 5 years. Our analysis illustrates how women draw on a wider cancer discourse to make sense of their own illness, which gave them a sense of commonality. However, some women, predominantly those who were diagnosed with cancer of the vulva or vagina, or who underwent particular uncommon or unfamiliar treatments such as brachytherapy, had difficulties situating their illness within the wider cancer discourse. This had implications for women when accessing social support.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Natalie Wray
- Monash University, Caulfield East, Victoria, Australia.
| | | | | |
Collapse
|
18
|
Markovic M, Manderson L, Wray N, Quinn M. Complementary medicine use by Australian women with gynaecological cancer. Psychooncology 2006; 15:209-20. [PMID: 15940740 DOI: 10.1002/pon.936] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022]
Abstract
AIMS AND OBJECTIVES Social and cultural factors are identified that impact on complementary therapy use among Australia-born and immigrant women diagnosed with gynaecological cancer. METHODS A qualitative study design including in-depth interviews with women diagnosed with gynaecological cancer (N=53) and participant observation was conducted. RESULTS Approximately one-third of women utilized complementary and alternative medicine, with this being determined by current health concerns and health beliefs related to the efficacy of different modalities. Four types of complementary therapy users emerged: consequential, therapeutic, informed and exploratory. CONCLUSION There was a relatively low uptake of complementary treatments. Choice was influenced by women's socio-demographic background, clinical and personal history, lack of personal experiences of gynaecological cancer among study participants' kin and friends, and lack of popular alternative literature on such cancer.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Milica Markovic
- Key Centre for Women's Health in Society, The University of Melbourne, Australia.
| | | | | | | |
Collapse
|