Table 1 Demographics of study participants (N = 200)
Characteristics | N (%) or mean ± SD |
|---|---|
Age | 55.2 ± 11.1 |
Sex | |
 Male | 107 (53.5%) |
 Female | 93 (46.5%) |
Marital status | |
 Married | 171 (85.5%) |
 Separated, widowed, divorced, never married | 29 (14.5%) |
Years of education received | 9.8 ± 3.4 |
Having a religious affiliation | 94 (47.0%) |
Cancer type | |
 Breast cancer | 45 (22.5%) |
 Lung cancer | 44 (22.0%) |
 Nasopharyngeal cancer | 21 (10.5%) |
 Colorectal cancer | 20 (10.0%) |
 Other cancers a | 70 (35.0%) |
Financial distress | 4.1 ± 2.0 |
Accurate awareness about disease severity (i.e. being at advanced stage) | |
 Aware | 103 (51.5%) |
 Not aware | 97 (48.5%) |
Perceived reasons for cancer | |
 Old age | 158 (79.0%) |
 Smoking | 109 (54.5%) |
 Alcohol consumption | 102 (51.0%) |
 God’s will | 82 (41.0%) |
 Stress | 44 (22.0%) |
 Chewing betel nut/tobacco | 33 (16.5%) |
 Being overweight | 21 (10.5%) |
 Previous bad deeds | 13 (6.5%) |
 Other reasons b | 15 (7.5%) |
Perceived stigma | |
 Prevalence | 158 (79.0%) |
 Score | 20.5 ± 18.0 |
Prevalence of behavioural self-blame | 112 (56.3%) |
Prevalence of characterological self-blame | 124 (62.3%) |
Depression (CES-D) | |
 Patients with CES-D above 16 | 133 (66.5%) |
 Score | 20.2 ± 9.5 |
Emotional well-being | 13.3 ± 5.6 |
Social well-being | 21.6 ± 4.5 |
Utilization of mental health services | |
 Ever used | 6 (3.0%) |
 Never used | 174 (87.0%) |
 Not sure | 20 (10.0%) |
Interest in using mental health services should they be referred | |
 Interested | 47 (24.2%) |
 Not interested | 56 (28.9%) |
 Not sure | 91 (46.9%) |