A Comparison of the Quality of Life and Depression Risk Among Breast Cancer Patients in High- and Low/Middle-Income Countries : An Integrative Literature Review
Lindborg, Marjaana (2023)
Lindborg, Marjaana
2023
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2023053016199
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2023053016199
Tiivistelmä
Breast cancer (BC) is the most common cancer in the world and lists the 5th most common cancer related deaths worldwide. The objective of this thesis is to gather novel information on the psychosocial situation of the breast cancer patients around the world and discuss the obstacles in order to trying to make the world more equal to all breast cancer patients and their families.
Breast cancer diagnosis causes anxiety and can lead to depression and thus can be thought to cause decreased quality of life (QoL). The aim of this thesis is to critically analyze the differences in quality of live and depression among breast cancer patients in low/middle- and high-income countries and to illustrate the barriers the patients face in low/middle-income countries compared to high-income countries, when their access to modern treatments and psychological support networks are limited. Many interventions have been made in order to better the QoL and minimize depression both in low/middle-income and high-income countries and this thesis examines whether these interventions have been successful.
Depression is usually the highest among newly diagnosed patients and during the acute phase of cancer treatments. Breast cancer patients in low/middle-income countries are thought to be at higher risk of depression and lower QoL than breast cancer patients in high-income countries. An integrative literature review was chosen as a research method. The data search was carried out in CINAHL and Medline databases. From 2602 peer reviewed articles 10 articles were selected for this integrative literature review. These articles covered both low/middle- and high-income countries. The results show that all low/middle-income countries are not the same when it comes to BC depression risk, prevalence of depression and QoL showing how complex the field of research is. The low/middle-income country status alone cannot define what kind of psychological challenges the BC patients might face. Low-income African breast cancer patients seemed to be in higher depression risk compared to Asian patients in low/middle-income countries whereas patients in Asian high-income countries had higher depression risk than Caucasians in high-income countries. Health insurance was not an important factor when depression risk was evaluated but economic burden was listed as one key factor causing increased depression. Depression risk seems to be multifactorial so not only high/low country GNI can predict the risk. Interventions have not been successful to lower the depression rates and increased QoL in low/middle- and high-income countries in long term but managed to shorten the time from first clinic meeting to diagnosis among low/middle-income Indonesian BC patients. The study did not find the answers for the burning question of how to make the world more equal to BC patients and their families.
The collected data were limited so further studies are needed to examine more thoroughly which factors are contributing to higher depression risk in different low/middle-income countries and a more precise definition of low- and high-income countries is needed to create interventions to prevent depression in these countries.
Breast cancer diagnosis causes anxiety and can lead to depression and thus can be thought to cause decreased quality of life (QoL). The aim of this thesis is to critically analyze the differences in quality of live and depression among breast cancer patients in low/middle- and high-income countries and to illustrate the barriers the patients face in low/middle-income countries compared to high-income countries, when their access to modern treatments and psychological support networks are limited. Many interventions have been made in order to better the QoL and minimize depression both in low/middle-income and high-income countries and this thesis examines whether these interventions have been successful.
Depression is usually the highest among newly diagnosed patients and during the acute phase of cancer treatments. Breast cancer patients in low/middle-income countries are thought to be at higher risk of depression and lower QoL than breast cancer patients in high-income countries. An integrative literature review was chosen as a research method. The data search was carried out in CINAHL and Medline databases. From 2602 peer reviewed articles 10 articles were selected for this integrative literature review. These articles covered both low/middle- and high-income countries. The results show that all low/middle-income countries are not the same when it comes to BC depression risk, prevalence of depression and QoL showing how complex the field of research is. The low/middle-income country status alone cannot define what kind of psychological challenges the BC patients might face. Low-income African breast cancer patients seemed to be in higher depression risk compared to Asian patients in low/middle-income countries whereas patients in Asian high-income countries had higher depression risk than Caucasians in high-income countries. Health insurance was not an important factor when depression risk was evaluated but economic burden was listed as one key factor causing increased depression. Depression risk seems to be multifactorial so not only high/low country GNI can predict the risk. Interventions have not been successful to lower the depression rates and increased QoL in low/middle- and high-income countries in long term but managed to shorten the time from first clinic meeting to diagnosis among low/middle-income Indonesian BC patients. The study did not find the answers for the burning question of how to make the world more equal to BC patients and their families.
The collected data were limited so further studies are needed to examine more thoroughly which factors are contributing to higher depression risk in different low/middle-income countries and a more precise definition of low- and high-income countries is needed to create interventions to prevent depression in these countries.