Syndemic factors for cancer screening, diagnosis and control
Scoping review · Full text review stage · Syndemics
People on This Project
- Principal Investigator: Zahid Butt
- Lead: Mariam Hasan
The extent, range and gaps in current research around syndemic factors for cancer screening, diagnosis and control
Cancer is a complex disease, and its burden is rising globally, due to population expansion, improved life expectancy, urbanisation and lifestyle changes leading to a rise in risk factors, such as obesity and exposure to tobacco. Poor social determinants of health also contribute to cancer disparities, and this requires the integration of services that extend beyond healthcare delivery, for effective cancer control. The clustering of social and health problems underlies the delayed diagnosis, poor access and utilisation of cancer control services as well as poor cancer survivorship in those living with and beyond cancer, ultimately leading to adverse outcomes in these populations.
Understanding how certain diseases cluster across varied social contexts and within specific populations is necessary and can be studied using the syndemic framework as a tool. A syndemic involves two or more diseases that interact to worsen health outcomes and includes consideration of how the wider environmental context and other socio-economic and political factors contribute over time to mutually exacerbate negative outcomes. Syndemic research can help operationalise how social problems cluster with and affect medical problems and help design interventions that address these structural inequities for effective cancer control. This however requires a clear operationalization of the framework itself.
We aim to conduct a scoping review to identify literature that has looked at syndemic interactions in cancer to develop a proposed framework and identify research gaps that may benefit from further empirical research. (This project is currently at the full text review stage.)