ABSTRACT
Introduction Urbanization in contemporary China has promoted social progress and has generally improved the quality of life. It has increased income and investments in health, has improved the social security system, and has cultivated modern health awareness. As a result, life expectancy has risen, and the infant mortality rate has fallen. However, urbanization has also led to environmental pollution and has changed residents’ lifestyles in some ways that threaten health (He 2008: 43-45; Zhao et al. 2002: 1235-1236). Unhealthy diets, smoking, alcohol abuse, lack of exercise, and stress lead to increased diseases such as cancers. Breast cancer (BC) has become the most common malignancy for women in many countries, including China. There are about 1,500,000 new BC patients in the world annually; 570,000 patients die of BC annually; and BC has become the leading cause of death for women (Liu and Zheng 2003: 626). Though China has a comparatively low-incidence of BC, the growth in the incident rates of BC is the highest in the world (Tang 2008: 2). Since the 1990s, the Chinese incidence rate has increased more than twice as fast as have global rates, particularly in urban areas (Lei et al. 2014: 279). Twelve percent of the newly diagnosed BC cases in the world are from China (People 2014). The number of new cases of BC annually is as high as 210,000 (Xinhua 2015), and the annual growth rate of new BC cases has been 3-5 percent in China over these years (Tang 2008: 2). According to the Chinese National Central Cancer Registry, BC is the most common cancer among urban women and the fourth most common cancer in rural areas. The age-standardized rate is twice as high in urban areas (34.3 cases per 100,000 women) as in rural areas (17.0 cases per 100,000 women). With respect to mortality, the age-standardized rate in urban areas (7.2 cases per 100,000 women) is now 46.9 percent higher than in rural areas (4.9 cases per 100,000 women) (Lei et al. 2014: 280). These data underscore the importance of understanding the circumstances confronting Chinese BC women in urban areas. The aim of this chapter is to examine the impacts of BC and to explore the characteristics and roles of BC women’s social support networks in contemporary urban China. The first author has established a relationship with selected BC patients since September 2011. With the data generated through this relationship, we can address the following research questions. What impacts do
BC and treatment have on BC women? What are the characteristics of BC women’s social support networks? What roles do BC women’s social support networks play in comprehensive rehabilitation? To address these questions, we first introduce the research background and review the relevant literature. We then describe the research design and report key findings. Finally, we offer conclusions based on the original research.
