Author(s):

Lavjit Kaur and Shalini Sharma

Abstract: Cancer is a great threat not only to health of the person concerned but it plays havoc with the whole family of the victim. It not only disturbs the socio-economic fabric of the family but dwindles the whole development status, to meet the cost and repay the financial debt, the households suffering from cancer have to cut down their own essential needs. The present study was conducted to trace the Socio-Economic and Psychological Consequence of Cancer from Patient’s Perspective in South- Western Punjab. Two districts i.e. Bathinda and Sri Muktsar Sahib were randomly selected. Majority (85.6%) of the sampled respondents were above 40 years of age. Majority (80.6%) of the respondents had not faced any marital or family conflict. Major cut was on food items with the mean score of 64.80 in the region. Half of the (42.5%) respondents felt that due to cancer treatment identity or image of the body bothered them a lot. Thirty per cent of the respondents had taken loan from multiple sources including both institutional and non-institutional sources. The anxiety level is highly significant with the socio-economic parameters with the chi-square value 8.197 for gender, 38.39 for age, 7.77 for marital status, 18.09 for income and 31.37 for family size. Anxiety level, marital conflicts, debt burden and economic loss had significantly contributed towards the severity of consequences. Support system at family level and at community level could prove too helpful and goes a long way in mitigating the socio-economic and psychological consequences faced by victims

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