Author of

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  P3.24 - Poster Session 3 - Supportive Care (ID 160)

  • Event: WCLC 2013
  • Type: Poster Session
  • Track: Supportive Care
  • Presentations: 1
  • Moderators:
  • Coordinates: 10/30/2013, 09:30 - 16:30, Exhibit Hall, Ground Level

  • 12896

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    P3.24-044 - Explicit and implicit associations toward lung cancer (LC) relative to breast cancer (BC) (ID 2868)

    09:30 - 09:30  |  Author(s): J. Mills
    • Abstract

    Background
    Emerging research suggests that LC may be associated with greater levels of stigma, shame and hopelessness compared to other cancers. This study measured explicit, conscious attitudes (EAs) and used the Implicit Association Test (IAT) to assess implicit, unconscious attitudes (IAs) and stereotypes (ISs) of LC relative to BC.

    Methods
    To assess EAs, participants (Ps), [people with cancer (n=243), caregivers (n=677), healthcare providers (HCPs, n=142), and the general public (n=864)] were asked to rate their agreement, on a six-point scale, with statements about how people with LC and BC “do feel” (descriptive attitudes) or “ought to feel” (normative attitudes) about their disease. Implicit attitudes were measured with three IATs that used LC or BC images with words representing good/bad; hope/despair; or suitable/shameful. Implicit stereotypes used images representing smoking cigarettes, drinking alcohol and eating unhealthy foods. An IAT D score indicated the strength of bias against LC relative to BC: >0.65 = strong bias; 0.35-0.65 = moderate bias; 0.15-0.35 = slight bias; -0.15 -+0.15 = no bias, and < -0.15 indicated bias against BC.

    Results
    EAs and IAs were substantially more negative towards LC. Most Ps provided more negative ratings for LC than BC for both descriptive (70%vs.8%) and normative statements (56% vs. 3%). Ps had strong negative IAs towards LC compared to BC (bad: 74% vs. 10%; despair: 75% vs. 9%; shame: 67% vs. 17%). In the stereotype IATs, Ps were far more likely to associate LC with smoking than with eating unhealthy foods or drinking alcohol. Conversely, Ps were far less likely to associate BC with smoking than with eating or drinking (smoking: 86% LC vs. 7% BC; eating: 86% LC vs. 7% BC; drinking: 67% LC vs. 18%BC). These trends were consistent across caregivers, patients, HCPs, and the public. EAs, IAs and ISs were uncorrelated.

    	Caregivers	Patients	HCPs	General Public
    EXPLICIT
    Negative Descriptive	75%, 7%, 18%	81%, 7%, 12%	88%, 5%, 7%	74%, 8%, 18%
    Negative Normative	59%, 3%, 38%	64%, 2%, 34%	65%, 3%, 32%	56%, 3%, 41%
    IMPLICIT ATTITUDES
    Bad	D=0.43 73%, 12%, 15%	D=0.33 72%, 13%, 15%	D=0.33 63%, 17%, 20.0%	D=0.44 74%, 9%, 17%
    Despair	D=0.43 73%, 10%, 17%	D=0.54 76%, 5%, 19%	D=0.44 77%, 13%, 10%	D=0.47 77%, 8%, 15%
    Shame	D=0.32 65%, 18%, 17%	D=0.52 82%, 9%, 9%	D=0.41 72%, 11%, 17%	D=0.35 66%, 17%, 17%
    IMPLICIT STEREOTYPES
    Smoking vs. Eating	D=0.69 89%, 5%, 6%	D=0.71 90%, 5%, 5%	D=0.79 94%, 3%, 3%	D=0.57 84%, 8%, 8%
    Smoking vs. Drinking	D=0.34 65%, 18%, 17%	D=0.17 54%, 31%, 15%	D=0.54 81%, 5%, 14%	D=0.34 69%, 17%, 14%
    Drinking vs. Eating	D=0.10 40%,33%,27%	D=0.22 54%, 23%, 23%	D=0.21 59%, 29%, 12%	D=0.16 50%, 27%, 23%

    Percentage order: LC bias%, BC bias%, No bias%. D=mean IAT score. All D scores significantly > 0 with ps<0.001

    Conclusion
    Ps had greater explicit and implicit negative bias against LC compared to BC.