Broken yet brave : Arabic women's experience of a breast cancer diagnosis

Rawan Alsababha, Fiona McDermid, Rebecca O'Reilly, Judy Mannix, Kath Peters

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Introduction: Breast cancer is the most common cancer in Arabic women and is often diagnosed in advanced stages, resulting in an increased likelihood of requiring a mastectomy. Despite this, there is a lack of contemporary literature exploring Arabic women’s experiences of breast cancer and its sequelae. Method: Semi-structured interviews were conducted between 2019 and 2022 of Arabic women diagnosed with breast cancer. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis as described by Braun and Clark. Results: Two main themes were identified: (a) Broken yet brave describes participants’ experiences when diagnosed and (b) Making decisions about treatment and experiences of support detailing their lack of decision-making autonomy and perceptions of support. Discussion: Arabic women believe in the concept of fate and faith, and their cultural conditioning is to prioritize family over themselves, often with limited support. They lack autonomy in decision-making due to the patriarchal society they live in.
Original languageEnglish
Number of pages7
JournalJournal of Transcultural Nursing
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Nov 2024

Open Access - Access Right Statement

© The Author(s) 2024. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access page (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage). Request permissions for this article.

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