Cancer Metaphor And Its Assocation With Cancer-Related Attitudes And Behaviours

While there have been many studies on the different metaphors used by cancer patients to describe their illness, there have been surprisingly few systematic attempts to examine the connection between these metaphors and the patients’ cancer-related attitudes and behaviours. Using the Metaphorical Identification Procedure (MIP) and the Risk Perception Attitude (RPA) framework, this study examined the data gathered from 31 cancer patients from Kuching Sarawak through semi-structured interview in light of the above mentioned connection. The results show that the patients turned to the structural, the conspiratorial, the journey and several other metaphors to describe their terminal conditions. The results also show that the metaphors used by these patients shed further insights into their cancer-related attitudes (e.g., low to high risk perceptions) and behaviours (e.g., weak to strong efficacy beliefs), and the different attitudinal groups to which they belong (e.g., responsive, proactive, avoidance, indifferent). Such insights, as the study concluded, may help address some of the current concerns regarding metaphors in oncology, especially those related to the different effects that these metaphors have on different cancer sufferers