The Impact of Cancer Diagnosis and Its Treatment on Korean Women's Lives: A Meta-synthesis Study

Abstract

Purpose: Korean women, who have come to the forefront at a risk of cancer, have been notable objects for qualitative nursing research in last a couple of decades. Given the imparity and varieties of those findings, this study was aimed to synthesize the impact of cancer diagnosis and its treatment on Korean women’s lives using a qualitative meta-synthesis method. Methods: By searching five English-based databases and four Korean databases, 21 qualitative studies on Korean women’s particular experiences of cancer diagnosis and treatment since 2000 were included. Using a meta-synthesis process by Sandelowski & Barroso (2007), the selected studies were synthesized for interpretive integration of the findings. Results: The meta-synthesis elicited three themes: detachment from the usualness, awareness of profound desires, and redefinition of every relation. With destructive experiences of a diagnosis and its treatments, Korean women felt apart from their everyday life, daily roles, and even from their own body. They then grasped a strong desire for life and for beauty, and reconfirmed the sense of mission for being a mother. Those changes made them to reconstruct all relations surrounded them. Conclusion: The findings yield a substantive portrait of the given issue, which could be helpful for health care professionals.