Cancer symptom awareness and barriers to symptomatic presentation in England--are we clear on cancer?

ABSTRACT:

Background

Low cancer awareness may contribute to delayed diagnosis and poor cancer survival. We aimed to quantify socio-demographic differences in cancer symptom awareness and barriers to symptomatic presentation in the English population.

Methods

Using a uniquely large data set (n=49 270), we examined the association of cancer symptom awareness and barriers to presentation with age, gender, marital status and socio-economic position (SEP), using logistic regression models to control for confounders.

Results

The youngest and oldest, the single and participants with the lowest SEP recognised the fewest cancer symptoms, and reported most barriers to presentation. Recognition of nine common cancer symptoms was significantly lower, and embarrassment, fear and difficultie

SUBMITTER: Niksic M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4522620 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature