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Nursing fellowship awarded
23rd January 2007
Coping and Adaptation to Cancer in an Ethnically Diverse Population
Applicant: Miss Karen Lord
Supervisor: Dr Paul Symonds
South Asians now make up between 20-50% of the population of Leicester, Bradford and Birmingham. In order to offer optimal treatment for psychological as well as physical complications of cancer it is vitally important to understand how ethnically diverse populations react to a diagnosis of cancer. A pilot study has shown definite differences in coping styles in British cancer patients according to ethnicity. Whilst significant numbers of both Caucasian and Asian patients employ denial in some form, for reasons that are as yet unclear Caucasian patients appear to do this more successfully than Asian patients and as such Asian patients have a poorer psychological adaptation to cancer with higher anxiety and depression scores.
We plan to:
- Replicate the findings of our pilot study using a larger patient population study prospectively and to find out whether the coping mechanism of denial varies with time.
- To find out whether the understanding of the concept of cancer varies between Caucasian and Asian patients in Leicester
The new information from this project should lead to improvements in support services for Asian patients.
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