Mental Health Care Utilization and its Barriers among Iranian Breast Cancer Survivors: A Cross-sectional Study.
Hassan Joulaei, Mohamad Parhizkar, Maryam Fatemi and 4 others
PMID 38328011WHAT IT FOUND
Only 28.0% of 218 Iranian breast cancer survivors who perceived a mental health care need since diagnosis used services.
Common barriers were coping alone and unwillingness.
Key findings
01Of the 218 participants who reported any perceived need for mental health care since diagnosis, 61 (28.0%) had used mental health services.
02Among participants with unmet needs, the most common barriers were preferring to deal with it alone (56; 35.7%) and unwillingness (51; 32.5%).
03Extremely severe depression, anxiety, and stress were reported by 14.8%, 23.5%, and 10.6% of participants, respectively.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
Findings come from one tertiary care center in Iran serving many low-to-middle-income families, so they may not apply to other settings or populations. Participants were recruited by convenient sampling, not random sampling. The study was cross-sectional and self-reported, so it cannot show why need or service use occurred or predict outcomes. The paper did not collect frequency, length, type, dosage, or duration of mental health treatments. Cancer stage and completion of treatment were not used as inclusion criteria, so the group includes a wide range of disease status.
Declared interests
No author conflict-of-interest or funding declaration appears in the supplied article text. The publication types list research support, non-U.S. Government.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that cost or access were the main barriers to mental health care. The most common reported barriers were preferring to cope alone and unwillingness.