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Psychological distress and quality of life in lung cancer : The role of health-related stigma, illness appraisals and social constraints
Chambers, Suzanne Baade, Peter Youl, Philippa Aitken, Joanne Occhipinti, Stefano Vinod, Shalini Valery, Patricia Garvey, Gail Fong, Kwun M. Ball, David
Chambers, Suzanne
Baade, Peter
Youl, Philippa
Aitken, Joanne
Occhipinti, Stefano
Vinod, Shalini
Valery, Patricia
Garvey, Gail
Fong, Kwun M.
Ball, David
Abstract
Objective Health-related stigma is associated with negative psychological and quality of life outcomes in lung cancer patients. This study describes the impact of stigma on lung cancer patients' psychological distress and quality of life and explores the role of social constraints and illness appraisal as mediators of effect.
Methods A self-administered cross-sectional survey examined psychological distress and quality of life in 151 people (59% response rate) diagnosed with lung cancer from Queensland and New South Wales. Health-related stigma, social constraints and illness appraisals were assessed as predictors of adjustment outcomes.
Results Forty-nine percent of patients reported elevated anxiety; 41% were depressed; and 51% had high global distress. Health-related stigma was significantly related to global psychological distress and quality of life with greater stigma and shame related to poorer outcomes. These effects were mediated by illness appraisals and social constraints.
Conclusions Health-related stigma appears to contribute to poorer adjustment by constraining interpersonal discussions about cancer and heightening feelings of threat. There is a need for the development and evaluation of interventions to ameliorate the negative effects of health-related stigma among lung cancer patients.
Keywords
lung cancer, stigma, health-related stigma, interventions
Date
2015
Type
Journal article
Journal
Book
Volume
24
Issue
11
Page Range
1569-1577
Article Number
ACU Department
Faculty of Health Sciences
Collections
Relation URI
DOI
Event URL
Open Access Status
Published as ‘gold’ (paid) open access
License
CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
File Access
Open
Notes
This research was commissioned by Cancer Australia. S. K. C. is supported by an Australian Research Council Future Fellowship.
© 2015 The Authors. Psycho-Oncology Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.
© 2015 The Authors. Psycho-Oncology Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.