‘It’s not within my control’: local explanations for the development of lung cancer in China

ABSTRACT

Rates of lung cancer in China are rising rapidly, creating an urgent need for prevention. Effective prevention measures require understanding local beliefs and perceptions about the risk for developing lung cancer. This article explores the explanations that Chinese lung cancer patients and their families give about the aetiology of their disease. Fifty-three interviews were conducted among lung cancer patients and their family members at a large tumour hospital in southern China. Participants presented a complex multifactorial explanation of lung cancer associating their disease with risks like tobacco use, occupational exposures, environmental pollution, lifestyle changes, and personal characters. While these are all standard risk factors commonly associated with lung cancer, participants presented them within a larger contextual frame of structural issues that impede their ability to change their behaviours. Using a social ecological model, we demonstrate how China’s socio-cultural environment shapes assumptions about the risk of lung cancer with particular reference to work, home, social situations, and the natural environment.

KEYWORDS:

• Lung cancer
• China
• perceived risk
• explanation
• structural causes of illness
• social ecological model

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank all of the people who took part in this research. Ethical approval was granted by the Institutional Review Board (IRB) of the author’s institution (NO: FWA00007867). The authors obtained consent from all participants.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The study was funded by the National Office for Philosophy and Social Sciences [grant number 17CSH021].