title: Nurses' blame attributions towards different types of cancer: A cross-sectional study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Public health education increasingly emphasizes the link of personal lifestyle with cancer risk, which may result in unintended negative social effects such as triggering stigma and/or blame towards cancer patients when their illness is perceived to be caused by personal behaviours or disapproved lifestyles.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To explore nurses' blame attributions towards patients with different types of cancer and to identify associated factors.
  
  
  METHODS
  Cross-sectional survey.
  
  
  METHODS
  A tertiary cancer-specialized hospital in Beijing.
  
  
  METHODS
  317 Chinese oncology nurses working in the cancer hospital.
  
  
  METHODS
  Participant nurses completed a self-administrated anonymous questionnaire and rated how much they would blame someone with a diagnosis of breast cancer, cervical cancer, colon cancer, liver cancer, lung cancer, as well as leukaemia and obesity.
  
  
  RESULTS
  More than half of the oncology nurses (57.1%) attributed at least some blame to patients with leukaemia, following with breast cancer (67.5%), cervical cancer (79.2%), liver cancer (79.2%), and colon cancer (78.5%). Lung cancer patients attracted at least some blame by 82.0% of participating nurses. Attributions of blame for patients with lung, cervical, colon and liver cancer were most common among nurses with shorter working experience.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study demonstrated that a high proportion of Chinese nurses attributed at least some blame to patients with different cancers despite being working in a cancer-specialized hospital. Future education and support for nurses are essential to avoid negative attitudes and blame attributions to cancer patients in order to enhance the quality of care.
authors.affiliation: School of Public Health, The University of Hong Kong, 5/F William Mong Block, 21 Sassoon Road, Hong Kong; Department of Anesthesiology, The Second Affiliated Hospital & Yuying Children's Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University, 268 College Road, Lucheng District, Wenzhou City, Zhejiang, China. Electronic address: ldlw@hku.hk.
authors.forename: Linda Dong-Ling
authors.initials: LD
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Anesthesiology, Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University, No. 95 Zhangzhidong Road, Wuchang District, Wuhan, Hubei, China. Electronic address: 2582062108@qq.com.
authors.forename: Liying
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zhan
authors.affiliation: School of Nursing, Peking Union Medical College, No. 33, Badachu Road, Shijingshan District, Beijing, China. Electronic address: angelazjy@126.com.
authors.forename: Jingyu
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of Anesthesiology, The Second Affiliated Hospital & Yuying Children's Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University, 268 College Road, Lucheng District, Wenzhou City, Zhejiang, China; Department of Anesthesiology, The University of Hong Kong, 21 Sassoon Road, Hong Kong. Electronic address: zhengyuan_xia@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: Zhengyuan
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Xia
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000451:nursing*; D009740:Nursing Staff / Q000523:psychology*; D012307:Risk Factors; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Attitudes; Attribution; Blame; Cancer care; Chinese nurses; Oncology