Purpose

Given that risk reduction and healthy lifestyles can prevent 4 in 10 cancers, it is important to understand what survivors believe caused their cancer to inform educational initiatives.

Methods

In this secondary analysis, we analyzed cancer survivor responses on the Causes Subscale of the Revised Illness Perception Questionnaire, which lists 18 possible causes of illness and a free text question. We used descriptive statistics to determine cancer survivors’ agreement with the listed causes and conducted separate partial proportional odds models for the top three causes to examine their associations with sociodemographic and clinical characteristics. Content analysis was used to examine free text responses.

Results

Of the 1,001 participants, most identified as Caucasian (n = 764, 77%), female (n = 845, 85%), and were diagnosed with breast cancer (n = 656, 66%). The most commonly believed causes of cancer were: stress or worry (n = 498, 51%), pollution in the environment (n = 471, 48%), and chance or bad luck (n = 412, 42%). The associations of sociodemographic and clinical variables varied across the models. Free text responses indicated that hereditary and genetic causes (n = 223, 22.3%) followed by trauma and stress (n = 218, 21.8%) and bad luck or chance (n = 79, 7.9%) were the most important causes of cancer.

Conclusions

Study results illuminate cancer survivors’ beliefs about varying causes of their cancer diagnosis and identify characteristics of survivors who are more likely to believe certain factors caused their cancer. Results can be used to plan cancer education and risk-reduction campaigns and highlight for whom such initiatives would be most suitable.

中文翻译：

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癌症幸存者认为是什么导致了他们的癌症？横截面调查数据的二次分析

目的

鉴于降低风险和健康的生活方式可以预防十分之四的癌症，因此了解幸存者认为导致癌症的原因以便为教育活动提供信息非常重要。

方法

在这项二次分析中，我们分析了癌症幸存者对修订后的疾病感知问卷原因子量表的反应，其中列出了 18 种可能的疾病原因和一个自由文本问题。我们使用描述性统计数据来确定癌症幸存者对列出的原因的同意程度，并对前三个原因进行了单独的部分比例优势模型，以检查它们与社会人口学和临床特征的关联。内容分析用于检查自由文本响应。

结果

在 1,001 名参与者中，大多数被确定为白人（n  = 764，77%）、女性（n  = 845，85%），并被诊断患有乳腺癌（n  = 656，66%）。最常见的癌症原因是：压力或忧虑 ( n  = 498, 51%)、环境污染 ( n  = 471, 48%) 以及偶然或运气不佳 ( n  = 412, 42%)。不同模型中社会人口统计学和临床​​变量的关联各不相同。自由文本回复表明，遗传和基因原因 ( n  = 223, 22.3%) 是导致癌症的最重要原因，其次是创伤和压力 ( n  = 218, 21.8%) 以及坏运气或机会 ( n  = 79, 7.9%) 。

结论

研究结果阐明了癌症幸存者对其癌症诊断的不同原因的信念，并确定了更有可能相信某些因素导致其癌症的幸存者的特征。结果可用于规划癌症教育和降低风险运动，并强调此类举措最适合谁。