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Experiences of Newly Diagnosed Oral Cancer Patients during the First Wave of the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Qualitative Study from Pakistan

The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in the scaling back or postponement of non-emergency hospital services, including care of cancer patients. The present qualitative study explored the experiences of newly diagnosed oral cancer patients during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in Pakistan. Pat...

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Autores principales: Khattak, Maria Ishaq, Khattak, Saad Ishaq, Khan, Muslim, Khan, Zohaib, Dikomitis, Lisa, Ul-Haq, Zia, Saddki, Norkhafizah
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9324128/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35886367
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19148508
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author Khattak, Maria Ishaq
Khattak, Saad Ishaq
Khan, Muslim
Khan, Zohaib
Dikomitis, Lisa
Ul-Haq, Zia
Saddki, Norkhafizah
author_facet Khattak, Maria Ishaq
Khattak, Saad Ishaq
Khan, Muslim
Khan, Zohaib
Dikomitis, Lisa
Ul-Haq, Zia
Saddki, Norkhafizah
author_sort Khattak, Maria Ishaq
collection PubMed
description The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in the scaling back or postponement of non-emergency hospital services, including care of cancer patients. The present qualitative study explored the experiences of newly diagnosed oral cancer patients during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in Pakistan. Patients who attended the Department of Maxillofacial Surgery, Khyber College of Dentistry in July 2020 were selected using a maximum variation purposive sampling method. Seventeen semi-structured interviews were conducted in Pashto, the local language of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. All interviews were audiotaped, transcribed verbatim, and translated into English. Thematic content analysis yielded eight major themes: pain and generalised physical weakness, shock at diagnosis, psychological distress of the COVID-19 pandemic, faith and religion, double hit loss of employment, social isolation, social support from caregivers, and lack of support from health care professionals. In conclusion, the COVID-19 pandemic has a clear impact on the life experiences of newly diagnosed oral cancer patients. Distress due to delay in accessing health care and lack of support from health care providers are a matter of great concern. Appropriate interventions should be introduced to ensure psychological and social support strategies are in place for patients during interruptions of health care services.
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spelling pubmed-93241282022-07-27 Experiences of Newly Diagnosed Oral Cancer Patients during the First Wave of the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Qualitative Study from Pakistan Khattak, Maria Ishaq Khattak, Saad Ishaq Khan, Muslim Khan, Zohaib Dikomitis, Lisa Ul-Haq, Zia Saddki, Norkhafizah Int J Environ Res Public Health Article The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in the scaling back or postponement of non-emergency hospital services, including care of cancer patients. The present qualitative study explored the experiences of newly diagnosed oral cancer patients during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in Pakistan. Patients who attended the Department of Maxillofacial Surgery, Khyber College of Dentistry in July 2020 were selected using a maximum variation purposive sampling method. Seventeen semi-structured interviews were conducted in Pashto, the local language of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. All interviews were audiotaped, transcribed verbatim, and translated into English. Thematic content analysis yielded eight major themes: pain and generalised physical weakness, shock at diagnosis, psychological distress of the COVID-19 pandemic, faith and religion, double hit loss of employment, social isolation, social support from caregivers, and lack of support from health care professionals. In conclusion, the COVID-19 pandemic has a clear impact on the life experiences of newly diagnosed oral cancer patients. Distress due to delay in accessing health care and lack of support from health care providers are a matter of great concern. Appropriate interventions should be introduced to ensure psychological and social support strategies are in place for patients during interruptions of health care services. MDPI 2022-07-12 /pmc/articles/PMC9324128/ /pubmed/35886367 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19148508 Text en © 2022 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Khattak, Maria Ishaq
Khattak, Saad Ishaq
Khan, Muslim
Khan, Zohaib
Dikomitis, Lisa
Ul-Haq, Zia
Saddki, Norkhafizah
Experiences of Newly Diagnosed Oral Cancer Patients during the First Wave of the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Qualitative Study from Pakistan
title Experiences of Newly Diagnosed Oral Cancer Patients during the First Wave of the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Qualitative Study from Pakistan
title_full Experiences of Newly Diagnosed Oral Cancer Patients during the First Wave of the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Qualitative Study from Pakistan
title_fullStr Experiences of Newly Diagnosed Oral Cancer Patients during the First Wave of the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Qualitative Study from Pakistan
title_full_unstemmed Experiences of Newly Diagnosed Oral Cancer Patients during the First Wave of the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Qualitative Study from Pakistan
title_short Experiences of Newly Diagnosed Oral Cancer Patients during the First Wave of the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Qualitative Study from Pakistan
title_sort experiences of newly diagnosed oral cancer patients during the first wave of the covid-19 pandemic: a qualitative study from pakistan
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9324128/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35886367
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19148508
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