Experiences of social support among Kashmiri women with breast cancer

Abstract

One of the major global health crises in the contemporary scenario is the rapid increase in the incidence of the disease of cancer in general with breast cancer in particular affecting millions of women worldwide. The diagnosis of breast cancer provokes a series of changes in patient’s lives with social support seen as critical in facilitating women cope with the illness as well as the stress associated with it. Although breast cancer has emerged as the focus of clinical research and intervention in Kashmir, the experiences of support dynamics characterising post-diagnosis situation among such patients have been neglected. This qualitative study, thus, investigated the experiences of Kashmiri women with breast cancer regarding social support. Participants were invited for in-depth face-to-face interviews between November 2018 and March 2019 using snowball sampling technique, and the participants were recruited until data saturation was reached (n= 12). The study revealed that participants received overwhelming support (emotional, financial, practical, moral, and informational) from significant others (parents, siblings, husbands, children, extended family), important others (relatives, friends, neighbours, colleagues, peers), healthcare providers (doctors, nurses, paramedics, physician’s assistants), and religion and spirituality (religious beliefs and practices, spiritual healers, shrines) throughout their journey with breast cancer and reported varying positive outcomes as a result of the support received. Moreover, social support received provided them strength, and encouragement and instilled feeling of optimism that helped them to deal with their illness. The study further highlights a need for interventions that could address the unmet support needs thereby reducing the disturbance and sufferings experienced by women post-diagnosis.

Keywords:

• Breast cancer
• Kashmir
• optimism
• qualitative study
• significant others
• social support
• women

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to all the women who participated in this study. We would also like to pray for one of the participants who lost her battle to breast cancer a few months ago. May God have mercy on her and may she rest in peace. Moreover, we would wish to thank Dr. Patrick Brown (Editor - Health, Risk, & Society), Dr. Irfanullah Farooqi (Assistant professor - South Asia University), and Ms. Aamina Shabir (Research Scholar - Jamia Millia Islamia) for helping with proofreading, and the anonymous reviewers for their valuable suggestions.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Countries with High/Very high HDI.

2. Countries with Low/Medium HDI.