The psychosocial implications of cervical cancer in women living in sub-Saharan Africa.
Johanna E Maree, Nokuthula G Nkosi, Agnes A Huiskamp
PMID 40035106WHAT IT FOUND
Women with cervical cancer in sub-Saharan Africa reported fear, stigma, sexual problems, financial hardship and unmet information needs, including delayed care and withheld diagnoses.
Key findings
01Half of the included studies reported a lack of knowledge about cervical cancer, and this was linked to delayed care, mistrust, fear and misunderstanding.
02Fear was reported in most included studies, including fear of recurrence, and one study found 60.4% of 404 women had slight to severe problems with anxiety or depression.
03Financial hardship was reported in 14 studies, and women lost income, could not afford transport or treatment, and some abandoned care.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
Only 18 peer-reviewed English-language studies from 2012 to 2021 were included, so the review may miss relevant work. The included studies used non-random sampling, so the reported themes cannot show how common these problems are among all women with cervical cancer in sub-Saharan Africa. Many studies investigated other topics, such as screening or treatment, and reported psychosocial issues secondarily, making extraction incomplete. The countries represented did not include the highest-incidence and highest-mortality settings, such as Eswatini and Malawi. The review did not test any intervention, so it cannot show that education, counselling or financial support improves outcomes.
Declared interests
The research did not receive a grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read this as evidence that a nurse-led education or support programme works. The review maps what women reported across 18 mostly qualitative studies, and the included studies did not test interventions.