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Knowledge of the signs and symptoms and risk factors of lung cancer in Australia: mixed methods study

BACKGROUND: Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in Australia. There is potential that health promotion about the risks and warning signs of lung cancer could be used to reduce delays in symptom presentation when symptoms are first detected. This study investigated knowledge, attitudes a...

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Autores principales: Crane, Melanie, Scott, Nicola, O’Hara, Blythe J., Aranda, Sanchia, Lafontaine, Mayanne, Stacey, Ingrid, Varlow, Megan, Currow, David
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2016
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4906715/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27296668
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12889-016-3051-8
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author Crane, Melanie
Scott, Nicola
O’Hara, Blythe J.
Aranda, Sanchia
Lafontaine, Mayanne
Stacey, Ingrid
Varlow, Megan
Currow, David
author_facet Crane, Melanie
Scott, Nicola
O’Hara, Blythe J.
Aranda, Sanchia
Lafontaine, Mayanne
Stacey, Ingrid
Varlow, Megan
Currow, David
author_sort Crane, Melanie
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in Australia. There is potential that health promotion about the risks and warning signs of lung cancer could be used to reduce delays in symptom presentation when symptoms are first detected. This study investigated knowledge, attitudes and beliefs which might impact help-seeking behaviour and could provide insight into possible public health interventions in New South Wales (NSW). METHODS: A convergent mixed method study design was used wherein data from 16 qualitative focus groups of residents (40+ years), purposefully recruited and stratified by smoking status, age and geography (metropolitan/regional), were compared with a CATI administered population-wide telephone survey (n = 1,000) using the Cancer Research UK cancer awareness measure (LungCAM). Qualitative findings were analysed thematically using NVIVO. Logistic regression analysis was used to investigate predictors of symptom knowledge in STATA. Findings were integrated using triangulation techniques. RESULTS: Across focus groups, haemoptysis was the only symptom creating a sense of medical urgency. Life experiences evoked a ‘wait and see’ attitude to any health deterioration. Perceived risk was low amongst those at risk with current smokers preferring to deny their risk while former smokers were generally unaware of any ongoing risk. The quantitative sample consisted of females (62 %), 40–65 years (53 %), low SES (53 %), former (46 %) and current smokers (14 %). In quantitative findings, haemoptysis and dyspnoea were the most recognised symptoms across the sample population. Age (<65 years), sex (female) and high socio-economic status contributed to a higher recognition of symptoms. Smoking was recognised as a cause of lung cancer, yet ever-smokers were less likely to recognise the risk of lung cancer due to second-hand smoke (OR 0.7 95 % CI 0.5–0.9). CONCLUSION: While there was some recognition of risk factors and symptoms indicative of lung cancer, there was disparity across the sample population. The qualitative findings also suggest that knowledge may not lead to earlier presentation; a lack of urgency about symptoms considered trivial, and smoking-related barriers such as stigma may also contribute to time delays in presentation. Public health interventions may be required to increase awareness of risk and emphasise the importance of seeking medical attention for ongoing symptoms.
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spelling pubmed-49067152016-06-15 Knowledge of the signs and symptoms and risk factors of lung cancer in Australia: mixed methods study Crane, Melanie Scott, Nicola O’Hara, Blythe J. Aranda, Sanchia Lafontaine, Mayanne Stacey, Ingrid Varlow, Megan Currow, David BMC Public Health Research Article BACKGROUND: Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in Australia. There is potential that health promotion about the risks and warning signs of lung cancer could be used to reduce delays in symptom presentation when symptoms are first detected. This study investigated knowledge, attitudes and beliefs which might impact help-seeking behaviour and could provide insight into possible public health interventions in New South Wales (NSW). METHODS: A convergent mixed method study design was used wherein data from 16 qualitative focus groups of residents (40+ years), purposefully recruited and stratified by smoking status, age and geography (metropolitan/regional), were compared with a CATI administered population-wide telephone survey (n = 1,000) using the Cancer Research UK cancer awareness measure (LungCAM). Qualitative findings were analysed thematically using NVIVO. Logistic regression analysis was used to investigate predictors of symptom knowledge in STATA. Findings were integrated using triangulation techniques. RESULTS: Across focus groups, haemoptysis was the only symptom creating a sense of medical urgency. Life experiences evoked a ‘wait and see’ attitude to any health deterioration. Perceived risk was low amongst those at risk with current smokers preferring to deny their risk while former smokers were generally unaware of any ongoing risk. The quantitative sample consisted of females (62 %), 40–65 years (53 %), low SES (53 %), former (46 %) and current smokers (14 %). In quantitative findings, haemoptysis and dyspnoea were the most recognised symptoms across the sample population. Age (<65 years), sex (female) and high socio-economic status contributed to a higher recognition of symptoms. Smoking was recognised as a cause of lung cancer, yet ever-smokers were less likely to recognise the risk of lung cancer due to second-hand smoke (OR 0.7 95 % CI 0.5–0.9). CONCLUSION: While there was some recognition of risk factors and symptoms indicative of lung cancer, there was disparity across the sample population. The qualitative findings also suggest that knowledge may not lead to earlier presentation; a lack of urgency about symptoms considered trivial, and smoking-related barriers such as stigma may also contribute to time delays in presentation. Public health interventions may be required to increase awareness of risk and emphasise the importance of seeking medical attention for ongoing symptoms. BioMed Central 2016-06-13 /pmc/articles/PMC4906715/ /pubmed/27296668 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12889-016-3051-8 Text en © Crane et al. 2016 Open AccessThis article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
spellingShingle Research Article
Crane, Melanie
Scott, Nicola
O’Hara, Blythe J.
Aranda, Sanchia
Lafontaine, Mayanne
Stacey, Ingrid
Varlow, Megan
Currow, David
Knowledge of the signs and symptoms and risk factors of lung cancer in Australia: mixed methods study
title Knowledge of the signs and symptoms and risk factors of lung cancer in Australia: mixed methods study
title_full Knowledge of the signs and symptoms and risk factors of lung cancer in Australia: mixed methods study
title_fullStr Knowledge of the signs and symptoms and risk factors of lung cancer in Australia: mixed methods study
title_full_unstemmed Knowledge of the signs and symptoms and risk factors of lung cancer in Australia: mixed methods study
title_short Knowledge of the signs and symptoms and risk factors of lung cancer in Australia: mixed methods study
title_sort knowledge of the signs and symptoms and risk factors of lung cancer in australia: mixed methods study
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4906715/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27296668
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12889-016-3051-8
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