IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/jocnur/v15y2006i9p1140-1148.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Balancing uncertainty and acceptance: understanding Chinese women's responses to an abnormal cervical smear result

Author

Listed:
  • Sheila Twinn

Abstract

Aims and objectives. The aims of this study were to examine the responses of Hong Kong Chinese women receiving an abnormal smear result and to compare any differences in responses depending on the diagnosis of the abnormal smear. Background. The implementation of cervical screening programmes has resulted in an increasing number of women receiving an abnormal smear result requiring cytological surveillance or referral for colposcopy. Evidence suggests that women frequently misunderstood such results, believing that they already have cancer. However, little is known about the responses of Chinese women in this situation. Design. An exploratory qualitative study. Methods. Face‐to‐face semi‐structured tape‐recorded interviews were undertaken with 66 women sampled opportunistically from an urban centre of a major non‐governmental service provider. Amongst this sample, 22 women required cytological surveillance, 20 required treatment for vaginitis and 24 were referred for colposcopy. Thematic analysis was undertaken of the translated interviews within and across groups to identify categories and themes illustrating women's responses to an abnormal smear result. Findings. An important difference in the comparison of the data sets was that of women's understanding of the cause of the abnormal result. Women with vaginitis understood the cause of their abnormality, whereas those in the other groups remained unclear about their abnormality, generating feelings of fear and uncertainty. Trust in practitioners influenced women's acceptance of the result. Conclusions. Although responses of Chinese women are similar to those in other population groups, with those referred for colposcopy experiencing greater anxiety than those undergoing cytological surveillance, balancing feelings of uncertainty and acceptance influenced Chinese women's responses to their abnormal results and allowed them to make sense of their result in their everyday life. Trust in the practitioner was essential to the acceptance of their result. Relevance to clinical practice. Such findings highlight implications for nursing practice, in particular developing information‐giving strategies and targeted information to help women manage feelings of uncertainty. The importance of trusting professional relationships in determining women's acceptance of an abnormal result is also highlighted. The findings suggest nurses working with Chinese women should consider the underlying influence of culture on women's beliefs and actions.

Suggested Citation

  • Sheila Twinn, 2006. "Balancing uncertainty and acceptance: understanding Chinese women's responses to an abnormal cervical smear result," Journal of Clinical Nursing, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 15(9), pages 1140-1148, September.
  • Handle: RePEc:wly:jocnur:v:15:y:2006:i:9:p:1140-1148
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2702.2006.01497.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2702.2006.01497.x
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.1365-2702.2006.01497.x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kavanagh, Anne M. & Broom, Dorothy H., 1998. "Embodied risk: My body, myself?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 46(3), pages 437-444, February.
    2. Mechanic, David & Meyer, Sharon, 2000. "Concepts of trust among patients with serious illness," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 51(5), pages 657-668, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ann T‐Y Shiu & Sheila F Twinn & Gladys C‐T Lee & Carmen W‐H Chan & Karis K‐F Kwong, 2010. "Strategies to maximise cervical cancer screening rates among older Hong Kong Chinese women – a cultural consensus analysis study," Journal of Clinical Nursing, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 19(21‐22), pages 3244-3246, November.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Li, Mingqiang & Li, Zhihui & Yip, Chi-Man (Winnie), 2022. "Informal payments and patients’ perceptions of the physician agency problem: Evidence from rural China," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 298(C).
    2. Smirnova, Michelle & Owens, Jennifer Gatewood, 2017. "Medicalized addiction, self-medication, or nonmedical prescription drug use? How trust figures into incarcerated women's conceptualization of illicit prescription drug use," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 183(C), pages 106-115.
    3. Stasiulis, Elaine & Gibson, Barbara E. & Webster, Fiona & Boydell, Katherine M., 2020. "Resisting governance and the production of trust in early psychosis intervention," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 253(C).
    4. Greco, Cinzia, 2015. "The Poly Implant Prothèse breast prostheses scandal: Embodied risk and social suffering," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 147(C), pages 150-157.
    5. Werner-Lin, Allison & Forbes Shepherd, Rowan & Young, Jennifer L. & Wilsnack, Catherine & Merrill, Shana L. & Greene, Mark H. & Khincha, Payal P., 2022. "Embodied risk for families with Li-Fraumeni syndrome: Like electricity through my body," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 301(C).
    6. Gunson, Jessica Shipman, 2010. ""More natural but less normal": Reconsidering medicalisation and agency through women's accounts of menstrual suppression," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 71(7), pages 1324-1331, October.
    7. Ozawa, Sachiko & Sripad, Pooja, 2013. "How do you measure trust in the health system? A systematic review of the literature," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 10-14.
    8. Carla Treloar & Rebecca Gray & Loren Brener & Clair Jackson & Veronica Saunders & Priscilla Johnson & Magdalena Harris & Phyllis Butow & Christy Newman, 2014. "“I can’t do this, it’s too much”: building social inclusion in cancer diagnosis and treatment experiences of Aboriginal people, their carers and health workers," International Journal of Public Health, Springer;Swiss School of Public Health (SSPH+), vol. 59(2), pages 373-379, April.
    9. Eileen Green & Frances Griffiths & Di Thompson, 2006. "‘Are My Bones Normal Doctor?’ the Role of Technology in Understanding and Communicating Health Risks for Midlife Women," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 11(4), pages 1-16, December.
    10. Roxanne J. Kovacs & Mylene Lagarde & John Cairns, 2019. "Measuring patient trust: Comparing measures from a survey and an economic experiment," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(5), pages 641-652, May.
    11. Erol, Maral, 2011. "Melting bones: The social construction of postmenopausal osteoporosis in Turkey," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 73(10), pages 1490-1497.
    12. Asiyeh Salehi & Neil Harris & Elisabeth Coyne & Bernadette Sebar, 2015. "Trust and quality of life: A cross-sectional study of young women," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 61(5), pages 506-514, August.
    13. Heidi Jerpseth & Vegard Dahl & Per Nortvedt & Kristin Halvorsen, 2018. "Older patients with late‐stage COPD: Their illness experiences and involvement in decision‐making regarding mechanical ventilation and noninvasive ventilation," Journal of Clinical Nursing, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 27(3-4), pages 582-592, February.
    14. Jin-An Huang & Chi-Shiun Lai & Jer-San Hu & Rhay-Hung Weng, 2014. "The impact of market orientation on patient loyalty: the mediation of relationship quality," Service Business, Springer;Pan-Pacific Business Association, vol. 8(4), pages 499-515, December.
    15. Mohseni, Mohabbat & Lindstrom, Martin, 2007. "Social capital, trust in the health-care system and self-rated health: The role of access to health care in a population-based study," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 64(7), pages 1373-1383, April.
    16. Hampshire, Kate & Hamill, Heather & Mariwah, Simon & Mwanga, Joseph & Amoako-Sakyi, Daniel, 2017. "The application of Signalling Theory to health-related trust problems: The example of herbal clinics in Ghana and Tanzania," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 188(C), pages 109-118.
    17. Finlay, Susanna & Sandall, Jane, 2009. ""Someone's rooting for you": Continuity, advocacy and street-level bureaucracy in UK maternal healthcare," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 69(8), pages 1228-1235, October.
    18. Hamill, Heather & Hampshire, Kate & Mariwah, Simon & Amoako-Sakyi, Daniel & Kyei, Abigail & Castelli, Michele, 2019. "Managing uncertainty in medicine quality in Ghana: The cognitive and affective basis of trust in a high-risk, low-regulation context," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 234(C), pages 1-1.
    19. Sara Zabeen & Sharon Lawn & Anthony Venning & Kate Fairweather, 2021. "Why Do People with Severe Mental Illness Have Poor Cardiovascular Health?—The Need for Implementing a Recovery-Based Self-Management Approach," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(23), pages 1-12, November.
    20. Salter, Charlotte Ingrid & Howe, Amanda & McDaid, Lisa & Blacklock, Jeanette & Lenaghan, Elizabeth & Shepstone, Lee, 2011. "Risk, significance and biomedicalisation of a new population: Older women's experience of osteoporosis screening," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 73(6), pages 808-815, September.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wly:jocnur:v:15:y:2006:i:9:p:1140-1148. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://doi.org/10.1111/(ISSN)1365-2702 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.