Lung cancer stigma: How people talk about lung cancer in Malaysia

Lung cancer stigma exists across different cultures, however the attributions and the rationale for stigmatisation may differ based on societal norms and beliefs. The majority of the past research on lung cancer stigma was done in Western, Educated, Industrialised, Rich and Democratic (WEIRD) countries and given that Malaysia has a unique ethnic and religious composition, the precursors of lung cancer stigma in WEIRD cultures may not apply straightforwardly. Therefore, to reduce the barriers to diagnosis and treatment of lung cancer, it is imperative to understand how sociocultural context influences people’s perception of lung cancer. We examined how the Malaysian public talk about lung cancer and lung cancer patients. In particular, we examine how cultural factors, such as ethnicity, religion and gender, contribute to way people express the stigma associated with lung cancer and lung cancer patients. A qualitative semi-structured interview was conducted with 32 Malaysians (11 Malays, 11 Chinese, and 10 Indians), with an average age of 25 between March 2022 and December 2022. Preliminary analysis shows that the majority of the stigma expressed by participants was about perceptions of disease controllability, smoking status and gender role norms with regards to smoking. Moreover, from the religious perspective, participants talked about lung cancer as being a punishment from God. We discuss how different aspects of people’s culture shape the stigmatizing ways they talk about lung cancer and lung cancer patients.