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Correlates of stigma for patients with cancer: a systematic review and meta-analysis

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Abstract

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.

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Author notes

  1. Zehao Huang and Ting Yu contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Nursing Department, Lingnan Branch of the Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, No. 2693 Kaichuang Street, Huangpu District, Guangzhou, China

    Zehao Huang, Ting Yu & Ailing Hu

  2. The Second Clinical Hospital of Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, Guangzhou, China

    Siyu Wu

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  1. Zehao Huang
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  2. Ting Yu
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  3. Siyu Wu
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  4. Ailing Hu
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All four authors conceived and designed the review, collected, and interpreted the data and drafted the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Ailing Hu.

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Huang, Z., Yu, T., Wu, S. et al. Correlates of stigma for patients with cancer: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Support Care Cancer 29, 1195–1203 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-020-05780-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-020-05780-8

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