Identifying barriers to resilience from the perspective of young and middle-aged patients with lymphoma: A qualitative exploration

Purpose This study aimed to understand and identify barriers to resilience in young and middle-aged patients with lymphoma in the context of Chinese culture. Methods A qualitative descriptive study was employed. Face-to-face, semi-structured, and in-depth individual interviews were conducted between May and July 2022. Purposive and differential sampling was used to select eligible participants. Conventional content analysis was used to analyze qualitative data and identify categories and subcategories. This study followed the COREQ checklist. Results Twenty patients aged 28–59 years completed the interviews. Three categories involving thirteen subcategories were identified from the interview data: (1) internal barriers—derived from individual cognitive, emotional, behavioral, spiritual, and physical distress, resulting in internal negative constructs, and reducing the motivation to overcome adversity; (2) unbalanced family functioning—families threatened by disease are incapable of maintaining normal functioning and fail to act effectively when facing crises; and (3) absent social support—insufficient or unavailable shielding protection from social support further inhibits resilience among patients with lymphoma. Conclusions This study identified various barriers to the resilience of young and middle-aged patients with lymphoma in the context of Chinese culture. In addition to the patient's internal barriers of resilience, specific family and socio-cultural barriers should also be emphasized by healthcare professionals. Multidisciplinary and family-centered resilience intervention should be developed to help such patients cope with, adapt to the disease, and achieve good psychosocial returns.