Abstract
The majority of studies on the relationship between cancer and well-being have been conducted in the United States and other Western countries. Consequently, a bias might exist that ignores the influence of cultural factors on perceptions of cancer, its etiology, and treatment. This investigation, a pilot study using African languages, attempted to explore the impacts of culture on health-related quality of life by using Cella's FACT-G scales to study rural Zulu, Pedi, and Tswana patients of extremely low socioeconomic status. Results suggest that cultural factors may exert a significant influence on the experience of FACT-G measured quality-of-life issues for cancer patients. Specifically, cultural attitudes toward accepting fate, a high level of trust and deference to healers, and a highly collectivistic orientation surrounding treatment decisions and procedures may have had an impact on the patient's scores on all four FACT-G subscales.