Anzeige
Erschienen in:
19.09.2020 | Review Article
Correlates of stigma for patients with cancer: a systematic review and meta-analysis
Erschienen in: Supportive Care in Cancer | Ausgabe 3/2021
Einloggen, um Zugang zu erhaltenAbstract
Objective
The systematic review and meta-analysis was performed to summarize the available evidence and identify the correlates of cancer stigma.
Methods
PubMed, EMBASE, Web of Science, the Cochrane Library, and PsycINFO were electronically searched to identify eligible studies about correlates of stigma for patients with cancer. Two reviewers independently screened the literature, extracted data, and assessed the risk of bias of included studies. A meta-analysis was performed using the statistical program R.
Results
Thirty-one studies involving a total of 7114 patients were included in the systematic review and meta-analysis. The results of the meta-analysis showed that cancer stigma shared positive associations with male gender, symptoms, depression, anxiety, body image loss, self-blame, social constraint, intrusive thoughts, and ambivalence over emotional expression, and negative associations with income, NK cell subsets, QOL, self-esteem, self-efficacy, cancer screening attendance, doctor’s empathy, and medical satisfaction. The results of the descriptive analysis indicated that cancer stigma was positively associated with self-perception of aging, anger, internal attributions, stressful life events, self-perceived burden, and sleep dysfunction, while negatively associated with patient-provider communication and sleep quality.
Conclusion
Healthcare staff should pay attention to the identified correlates of cancer stigma. The results of our research can inform the design of interventions to reduce stigma and to improve clinical outcomes in people with cancer.