Socio-demographic, health, and cognitive profile of the study participants (N = 50)
Socio-demographics
n
%
Sex
Male
15
30.0
Female
35
70.0
Age
Young adults
29
58
Middle to older adults
21
42
Mean (standard deviation) (years)
43.32 (14.66)
Ethnicity
Black
47
94.0
White
3
6.0
Marital status
Single
35
70.0
Married
15
30.0
Educational level
Primary to high school
38
76.0
Post-high school
12
24.0
Employment status
Employed
15
30.0
Unemployed
35
70.0
Place of residence
Rural
20
40.0
Urban
30
60.0
Health profile
Cancer type
Breast cancers
14
28.0
Hematological cancers
27
54.0
Colorectal cancers
4
8.0
Gynecological cancer
4
8.0
Missing
1
2.0
Cancer stage
Stage I
5
10.0
Stage II
6
12.0
Stage III–IV
16
32.0
Not staged
23
46.0
Comorbidities
None
30
60.0
One or more comorbidities
20
40.0
Cognitive profile
PCI
Impaired
20
41.7
Not impaired
28
58.3
Mini-MoCA
Impaired
30
63.8
Not impaired
17
36.2
N = study population; n = subgroup sample size; % = percentage of proportion; young adults = 18 to 45 years old; middle to older adults = 46 years older and above; PCI valid cases = 48; mini-MoCA valid cases = 47
Declarations
Acknowledgments
The authors acknowledge the assistance of the three research assistants (Bonga Mdletshe, Reorapetse Seabelo, and Maphuti Mothata) for helping with data collection. Reorapetse Seabelo is further acknowledged for assisting with data cleaning.
Author contributions
AGL: Conceptualization, Investigation, Writing—original draft, Writing—review & editing, Validation, Supervision. TBM: Investigation, Writing—original draft, Writing—review & editing. Both authors read and approved the submitted version.
Conflicts of interest
The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.
Ethical approval
The Correlation between self-perceived cognitive problems and objective cognitive impairment in non-CNS cancer patients in a resource-constrained health setting in South Africa study was approved by the Sefako Makgatho University Research Ethics Committee (SMUREC) (ethics number: SMUREC/M/48/2020: IR). The study was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki.
Consent to participate
Written informed consent was obtained from the patients who voluntarily agreed to participate in the study after information about the study was provided to them.
Consent to publication
Not applicable.
Availability of data and materials
The datasets supporting the study can be provided by the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
Funding
AGL is the principal investigator (PI) of this research project that was funded by the National Research Foundation Thuthuka grant number [129528] and Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University Capacity Development Grant; and the Biological Psychiatry Early Research Career Award. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
Open Exploration maintains a neutral stance on jurisdictional claims in published institutional affiliations and maps. All opinions expressed in this article are the personal views of the author(s) and do not represent the stance of the editorial team or the publisher.
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