Empathising Terminal Illness: A Phenomenological Study on the Constructs and Stereotypes of Life with Cancer (original) (raw)
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2015
Cancer has now become a widely discussed and feared disease among the public in India. This study is a qualitative approach in order to understand the ways in which ordinary people, called ‘laymen’ by medical practitioners, understand and experience cancer. Based on in-depth interviews and observations among fifty informants drawn from the middle class and wealthy backgrounds at a private hospital in Hyderabad city. The study takes medical anthropology’s approach to disease and illness by examining cancer patients’ ‘illness narratives’ (Kleinman 1989).This study focuses on tracing the journey of the patients through their explanations for various issues related to cancer. The ‘illness narratives’ highlight the trauma that cancer patients undergo, particularly in the questions they ask about their own individual ‘selves’, and their social obligations. One should give space for the patients to express how they experience the impact of the disease and subsequent treatments such as chem...
Exploring the problems faced by patients living with advanced cancer in Bengaluru, India
Heliyon
Cancer is a key influence on psychosocial and emotional distress among patients. Problems that advanced cancer patients in the western world face have been widely explored, but these findings may not be applicable in the non-western world due to the cultural differences. Exploring the problems of advanced cancer patients will help professionals plan appropriate therapeutic interventions to take care of the patients' physical, emotional, social and practical needs. Hence, this study aims to explore the psychosocial and emotional problems of advanced cancer patients in India. Methods: Data were collected from 10 advanced cancer patients from Bengaluru, using purposive sampling and semi-structured interviews. The interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed. Themes were generated using thematic analysis. Results: The prevalent themes were financial instability, hopelessness, family anguish, self-blame, helplessness, anger, stress, and suicidal thoughts. Conclusion: This research has highlighted that advanced cancer patients have several issues, indicating the importance of using a holistic approach while handling this vulnerable population by focusing more on the patient rather than the disease.
Cancer has now become a widely discussed and feared disease among the public in India. This study is a qualitative approach in order to understand the ways in which ordinary people, called ‘laymen’ by medical practitioners, understand and experience cancer. Based on in-depth interviews and observations among fifty informants drawn from middle class and rich backgrounds at a private hospital in Hyderabad city, this paper takes medical anthropology’s approach to disease and illness by examining cancer patients’ ‘illness narratives’ (Kleinman 1989). My research focuses on tracing the journey of the patients through their own explanations for various issues related to cancer. The ‘illness narratives’ highlight the trauma that cancer patients undergo , particularly in the questions they ask about their own individual ‘selves’, and their social obligations. One should give space for the patients to express how they experience the impact of the disease and subsequent treatment like chemotherapy on their body, and changes in their food habits caused due to intake of medicines. These subjective insights can substantially contribute to improving the kind of care cancer patients receive, from family and the medical profession. This research will also discuss issues of (lack of) compliance with medication and treatment, and access to alternative medical systems. An anthropological study of this nature can also complement research on cancer in fields like genetics. A discipline like medical anthropology, which deals with both biological and social aspects of the medical settings, is well suited to study diseases like cancer from multiple perspectives in hospital settings.
Being sick to a cancer patient: pathways of delay in help seeking and diagnosis of cancer in India
Journal of Social and Economic Development
There is evidence that cancer mortality and morbidity could be reduced when the disease is diagnosed and treated at an early stage. The paper examines the pathways of delay of cancer diagnosis in an Indian setting. It draws on a qualitative study conducted among cancer survivors and family members of cancer patients in the city of Bengaluru, South India. The results show that a substantial part of the delay occurred at the stage of initial formal help seeking wherein patient and family-led, disease-related and systemic factors together played a major role. Patient-led factors included trivialisation and normalisation of symptoms as part of general fatigue and aging; unrealistic risk perceptions that linked causality of cancer merely to heredity and behavioural risk factors; fear of being diagnosed as cancer patient; gender related reasons including family's gender performance expectation, lower agency of women to seek help and lower prioratisation of women's health in the household and access related issues including financial constraints and unavailability of specialised hospitals nearby. Disease-related factors included the presence of comorbidity, cancer's mimicking of symptoms of other diseases and absence of distinguishable symptoms at the initial stage for certain types of cancers. The practitioner-led and system-led factors such as trivialisation of symptoms by general practitioners, non cancer-specific referrals, and lack of cancer screening facilities accounted for a major part of delay after the formal help seeking. The paper argues that the mere knowledge of cancer symptoms did not always lead to early diagnosis due to the interplay of these factors. The ongoing cancer prevention and control interventions in India need to be informed of these micro level factors while developing strategies to prevent avoidable delays in cancer diagnosis.
Journal of Pharmacognosy and Phytochemistry, 2019
Cancer is a great threat not only to health of the person concerned but it plays havoc with the whole family of the victim. It not only disturbs the socio-economic fabric of the family but dwindles the whole development status, to meet the cost and repay the financial debt, the households suffering from cancer have to cut down their own essential needs. The present study was conducted to trace the Socio-Economic and Psychological Consequence of Cancer from Patient’s Perspective in South- Western Punjab. Two districts i.e. Bathinda and Sri Muktsar Sahib were randomly selected. Majority (85.6%) of the sampled respondents were above 40 years of age. Majority (80.6%) of the respondents had not faced any marital or family conflict. Major cut was on food items with the mean score of 64.80 in the region. Half of the (42.5%) respondents felt that due to cancer treatment identity or image of the body bothered them a lot. Thirty per cent of the respondents had taken loan from multiple sources...
Health, 2012
Cancer services in India have evolved and expanded significantly in recent years, with a surge in the availability of biomedical oncological treatment facilities for certain cohorts of the Indian population in urban areas. Despite significant and sustained economic development in many areas of India, major issues persist in the delivery of cancer care, even in the context of relatively prosperous urban populations. This article explores the dilemmas evident in Indian cancer care as perceived by a group of Indian oncology clinicians. Specifically, the interviews focused on their perspectives on the key challenges facing cancer patients, particularly in relation to help-seeking and access to care. The main concerns that emerged in the interviews were: (a) practical constraint (i.e. access and treatment); (b) cultural values (i.e. communication, stigma and the clinic); and (c) structural conditions (i.e. inequalities related to place, gender and class). We unpack these as important elements of cancer care in contemporary India, and present Farmer’s notion of structural violence, among other concepts, as potentially useful for understanding some facets of this social problem. We conclude that without a greater understanding of social and cultural issues shaping cancer care in India, little progress will be made in coping with a disease that is set to become a major burden within an increasingly prosperous and ageing population.
Psycho-Social and Financial Problems of Cancer Patients: An Empirical Study
International Journal of Reviews and Research in Social Sciences, 2023
Cancer is one of the major non-communicable diseases which increase morbidity and mortality in India. Many people become victims due to Cancer. WHO (2008) define Cancer as a disease in which some of the body's cells grow uncontrollably and spread to other parts of the body. Cancer can start almost anywhere in the human body, which is made up of trillions of cells. The present study is conducted to understand the psycho-social and financial problems of Cancer patients and find out the responsibilities of medical and psychiatry social workers in cancer settings. It is a quantitative study that adopted the descriptive research design. The purposive sample is employed and collected data from 50 cancer patients through a structured interview schedule. The study found that 27.5% of the respondents were diagnosed with blood cancer, followed by 25.5 per cent of the respondents diagnosed with breast cancer, and 13.7 per cent of the respondents diagnosed with lung cancer. It is observed that in many (70.6%) patients' history or family history one was affected with cancer or died with cancer. It is found that 30 per cent of the respondents have weakness of the body, (25%) fear the future, (25%) fear the treatment, (16%) have depression and (15%) have anxiety, (12%) have Distress, (8%) isolation, (5%) loss of focus and (4%) self-Harm. This shows that the majority have weakness of the body followed by fear of the future and treatment, anxiety and Depression. The majority of respondents or patients lost jobs (25.5%) followed by (23.5%) of respondents who stopped business and lost attachment to their families and the least stopped farming after being admitted to hospital because of cancer. The study suggested that the government should initiate more cancer treatment centers because is a costly treatment in the private sector.
Psycho-Oncology Research in India: Current Status and Future Directions
Journal of the Indian Academy of Applied Psychology, 2008
Research in the field of psycho-oncology examines the host of psycho-social factors that are likely to have a bearing on overall health and well being of cancer patients and their caregivers at various points in the illness-trajectory. A scan of the psychooncology research literature from India was carried out utilizing pre-determined key words on four electronic databases. About one hundred and twenty relevant empirical papers were identified between the years 1977 and 2006. The review indicates that multiple themes (e.g. psychosocial factors related to cancer screening, distress, concerns and coping among patients and caregiver, development and adaptation of assessment tools) have attracted attention of researchers. A fine grade analysis of psychological processes and interpersonal dynamics that affect quality of life and well being of cancer patients and their caregivers as well as development and testing of cost-effective modules for psychological interventions are some of the areas that require urgent research attention. The factors that can impede the integration of empirical knowledge into routine clinical care and further advances in the field are highlighted.
Fatalism and stigma amongst cancer patients in south western Punjab
Environment Conservation Journal
The ideology and beliefs have a profound impact upon once lifestyle. Economic status, level of knowledge and awareness, beliefs and notions, social support system available, constitutes important determinants impacting to copeup strategies for cancer victims. The present study was conducted to assess the fatalism and stigma amongst cancer patients in south western Punjab. Two districts i.e. Bathinda and Sri Muktsar Sahib were randomly selected. Majority (87.5%) of the respondents believe that in cancer patients attributed cancer has caused due to their karmas. Forty six per cent of the respondents believed that cancer is contagious. One third (34.3%) of the respondents and their family members used the term ‘cancer’ as they believed that taking the name of disease had nothing to do with its curability versus non-curability or to describe the dreaded disease from which they were suffering. One third of the male respondents perceived imbalanced diet and sedentary lifestyle behind as a...
Why Cancer/Terminal Ill Diagnosis Unsuccessful in India: A Qualitative Analysis
Eurosian Journal of Medicine and Oncology, 2019
The underlying aim of the study is to investigate the underlying reasons behinds the rapid growths of cancer populations and the cancer mortality rates in the present India. The study emphasis mainly on the cancerous factors,the underlying barriers behind the unfruitfulness of the terminal diagnosis, and the propose solutions or preventive measures in traditional ways. The current study is an analytical study on the collected data and reports of the following reliable sources: • The Population-Based Cancer Registries Data’ of the Central and State Governments. • The Data from National Cancer Registry and Regional Cancer Centers, • National Family Health Survey of India (NFHS-3), NICPR-National Institute of Cancer Prevention and Research, ICMR-Indian Council of Medical Research, Indo-Asia News Service (IANS), and Zee Media Bureau. The study also utilized the available journals database, along with WHO database. The researcher also accesses to the government’s data and hospitals documents on cancer statistics and their reports. The modern turns out to be a cancer hub and the world largest contributor to cancer mortality rates. The numbers of cancer effected people increases every year, while the government had minimal inputs towards the preventive measures against cancer/terminal illness. Keywords: Awareness, cancer, diagnosis, mortality rates, terminal Illness