- Title
- Help-seeking behaviour in newly diagnosed lung cancer patients: assessing the role of perceived stigma
- Creator
- Rose, Shiho; Boyes, Allison; Kelly, Brian; Cox, Martine; Palazzi, Kerrin; Paul, Christine
- Relation
- NHMRC.1073317 http://purl.org/au-research/grants/nhmrc/1073317
- Relation
- Psycho-Oncology Vol. 27, Issue 9, p. 2141-2147
- Publisher Link
- http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/pon.4779
- Publisher
- John Wiley & Sons
- Resource Type
- journal article
- Date
- 2018
- Description
- Objective: This study explored help-seeking behaviours, group identification, and perceived legitimacy of discrimination, and its potential relationship with perceived lung cancer stigma. Methods: Consecutive consenting adults (n = 274) with a primary diagnosis of lung cancer within the previous 4 months were recruited at 31 outpatient clinics in Australia. A self-report survey assessed help-seeking, group identification, perceived legitimacy of discrimination, and perceived lung cancer stigma. Results: Services providing assistance from health professionals (69.5%) and informational support (68.5%) were more frequently used than emotional-based support. Only a small proportion (2.6%) of participants were unlikely to seek help from anyone, with the most popular sources of help being the general practitioner (91.0%), and oncologist/treating clinician (81.3%). One-fifth (21.1%) indicated they identified with being a lung cancer patient, and most did not perceive discrimination against lung cancer patients. Higher perceived lung cancer stigma was significantly associated with greater perceived legitimacy of discrimination (P < 0.001), but not help-seeking behaviours or group identification. Conclusions: The relationship between lung cancer stigma and perceived legitimacy of discrimination may guide initiatives to reduce stigma for patients. It is encouraging that perceived stigma did not appear to inhibit help-seeking behaviours. However, further research in this emerging field is needed to investigate patterns of perceived stigma and help-seeking over time to identify how and when to offer support services most appropriate to the needs of lung cancer patients.
- Subject
- group identification; help‐seeking; lung cancer; oncology; perceived legitimacy; social support; stigma; support services
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1414929
- Identifier
- uon:36831
- Identifier
- ISSN:1057-9249
- Rights
- © 2018 The Authors. Psycho‐Oncology Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
- Language
- eng
- Full Text
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