Voices About a Stigma: Cancer in the Opinion of Three Different Segments in Brazilian Society

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

Background

Stigma is known to negatively influence cancer patients’ psychosocial behaviour and treatment outcomes. The aim of this study was to systematically review the current data on cancer-related stigma across different populations and identify effective interventions used to address it.

Methodology

The protocol, search, appraisal, synthesis, analysis and reporting framework was used for conducting this systematic literature review. CINAHL, PubMed, PsycINFO and Google Scholar databases were searched using the different combination of keywords that include ‘cancer stigma’. Articles publication period was set for 2010–2020. A total of 54 articles (31 quantitative, 19 qualitative, 2 mixed methods and 2 scoping reviews) that met inclusion criteria were reviewed out of the 958 articles initially identified. Quality assessment of included studies revealed the studies had varying levels of methodological quality. Extracted data were organised and narratively analysed.

Results

Cancer stigma was expressed across different segments of the society including amongst the elites and healthcare providers. Developing countries had higher rates of stigma reported and experience of stigma varied by cancer type. Cancer was consistently associated with imminent death in all studies reviewed. Cancer patients experiencing stigma were more inclined to conceal their diagnosis and to seek medical help later. Whilst cancer stigma majorly resulted in negative psychosocial outcomes in patients, there were also instances of posttraumatic growth emanating from the stigma experienced. Literature on cancer-related stigma interventions was scant.

Conclusion

Cancer related stigma remains high in both clinical settings and amongst the general public. There is need for more interventions to combat cancer stigma and its effect in both patient and non-patient population. Anti-cancer public enlightenment campaigns should be sensitively designed to not further fuel stigma against patients with certain types of cancers.

Beyond the Drama: the Beautiful Life in News Feeds on Cancer

Facebook is one of the main communication tools in the world nowadays. In Brazil, it is used for almost half of the population. Knowing what is conveyed about cancer by this social network can be an important step for the development of efficient health communication strategies. We evaluate Facebook user's comments on pages about cancer; verify if there is a pattern of public awareness on the disease and compare it with results from other studies. Three pages about cancer on Facebook were selected among those with more followers in Brazil. For 6 months, from January to June 2014, all posts were selected and evaluated, and we created eight categories. On each page, the categories that generated most comments were elected for the second analysis. The behavior of empowered citizens by new communication tools is the target of this study. Similarities and differences between 12,926 comments coming from 1243 posts in three different Facebook pages on cancer were analyzed. Four new categories were identified: "religion," "positive," "negative," and "information." Despite the differences among the three pages selected for this study, we observed the predominance of positive speeches associated with religious terms. Following public perceptions on cancer is an important step for the development of efficient health communication strategies.