Perceived stigmatization and its impact on quality of life—results from a large register-based study including breast, colon, prostate and lung cancer patients
Open accessAbstract
BACKGROUND: To date, research on stigmatization among cancer patients and related psychosocial consequences has been scarce and mostly based on small and highly selected samples. We investigated stigmatization and its impact on quality of life among a large sample including four major tumor entities. METHODS: We assessed 858 patients with breast, colon, lung or prostate cancer from two cancer registries. Stigmatization and quality of life (QoL) was assessed with the Social Impact Scale (SIS-D) and the EORTC Quality of Life Questionnaire (European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer), respectively. Group effects were analyzed via analyses of variance, relationships were investigated via Pearson's r and stepwise regression analyses. RESULTS: The mean age was 60.7 years, 54% were male. Across cancer sites, the dimensions of stigmatization (isolation, social rejection, financial insecurity and internalized shame) were in the lower and middle range, with the highest values found for isolation. Stigmatization was lowest among prostate cancer patients. Stigmatization predicted all five areas of QoL among breast cancer patients (p < .05), but only affected emotional functioning (p < .01) among lung cancer patients. CONCLUSIONS: We found an inverse relationship between perceived cancer-related stigmatization and various dimensions of QoL, with variation between cancer sites. Breast cancer patients should be focused in individual therapies regarding the negative consequences accompanied by perceived stigmatization.
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Head and neck cancer is associated with a wide range of illness complications and adverse treatment effects that can reduce quality of life.
“Since head and neck cancer is associated with a wide range of illness complications and adverse treatment effects that can reduce QoL [32–34], psychosocial interventions that could enhance head and neck cancer patients’ QoL must be investigated.”
From Acceptance and commitment therapy versus mindfulness-based stress reduction for newly diagnosed head and neck cancer patients: A randomized controlled trial assessing efficacy for positive psychology, depression, anxiety, and quality of life (2022) · cites this paper as [34]
The Background mentions head and neck cancer only in a comparison of stigmatization levels. The study examines quality of life in patients with breast, colon, prostate and lung cancer; our copy does not address whether illness complications or adverse treatment effects reduce quality of life in head and neck cancer (searched: head and neck cancer, complications, treatment side effects). (LLM, conf=0.76)
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- Authors
- Ernst, J., Mehnert, A., Dietz, A., Hornemann, B., & Esser, P.
- Affiliations
- University Hospital Leipzig (DE)
- Technische Universität Dresden (DE)
- Corresponding author
- Ernst, J.
- Venue
- BMC Cancer
- Published
- 2017-11-09
- Volume
- 17
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 741-741
- ISSN
- 1471-2407 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC5680772
- OpenAlex
- W2768051977
- Cited by
- 121
- References
- 27
- Citations by year
- 2026: 14 · 2025: 14 · 2024: 25 · 2023: 23 · 2022: 13 · 2021: 17 · 2020: 8 · 2019: 5 · 2018: 2
- FWCI
- 1.81
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- cc-by
- Locations
- BMC Cancer (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Funders
- Roland Ernst Stiftung für Gesundheitswesen (RES 7/15)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Oncology › Cancer survivorship and care
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Oncology › Global Cancer Incidence and Screening
- Social Sciences › Economics, Econometrics and Finance › Economics and Econometrics › Economic and Financial Impacts of Cancer
- Keywords
- cancer-related stigma, perceived stigma, quality of life, breast cancer, colon cancer, prostate cancer, lung cancer, social isolation, social rejection, financial insecurity, internalized shame, emotional functioning
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Aged, Breast Neoplasms, Colonic Neoplasms, Cross-Sectional Studies, Female, Humans, Lung Neoplasms, Male, Middle Aged, Prostatic Neoplasms, Quality of Life, Registries, Social Perception, Young Adult, Social Stigma
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