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Feasibility and acceptability of a cancer symptom awareness intervention for adults living in socioeconomically deprived communities
BACKGROUND: Cancer survival rates in the UK are lower in comparison with similar countries in Europe and this may be linked to socioeconomic inequalities in stage of cancer diagnosis and survival. Targeted cancer awareness interventions have the potential to improve earlier symptomatic diagnosis and...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
BioMed Central
2018
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5989371/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29871618 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12889-018-5606-3 |
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author | Smith, Pamela Smits, Stephanie Owen, Sioned Wood, Fiona McCutchan, Grace Carter, Ben Edwards, Adrian Robling, Michael Townson, Julia Brain, Kate |
author_facet | Smith, Pamela Smits, Stephanie Owen, Sioned Wood, Fiona McCutchan, Grace Carter, Ben Edwards, Adrian Robling, Michael Townson, Julia Brain, Kate |
author_sort | Smith, Pamela |
collection | PubMed |
description | BACKGROUND: Cancer survival rates in the UK are lower in comparison with similar countries in Europe and this may be linked to socioeconomic inequalities in stage of cancer diagnosis and survival. Targeted cancer awareness interventions have the potential to improve earlier symptomatic diagnosis and reduce socioeconomic inequalities in cancer outcomes. The health check is an innovative, theory-based intervention designed to increase awareness of cancer symptoms and risk factors, and encourage timely help seeking among adults living in deprived communities. METHODS: A prospective, non-randomised evaluation was undertaken to test the feasibility and acceptability of the health check for adults aged 40 years and over living in deprived areas of Wales. Primary outcomes included recruitment and retention of approximately 100 adults, reach to participants in the lowest deprivation quartile, and intervention acceptability. Secondary outcomes included self-reported cancer symptom recognition, help-seeking behaviours and state anxiety pre/post intervention. RESULTS: Of 185 individuals approached, 98 (53%) completed the intervention. Sixty-six of 98 participants were recruited from community settings (67%) and 32 from healthcare settings (33%), with 56 (57%) from the lowest deprivation quartile. Eighty-three (85%) participants completed follow-up assessment. Participants recognised on average one extra cancer symptom post intervention, with improved recognition of and anticipated presentation for non-specific symptoms. State anxiety scores remained stable. Qualitative interviews (n = 25) demonstrated that the intervention was well received and motivated change. CONCLUSIONS: Recruitment was feasible in community and healthcare settings, with good reach to adults from low socioeconomic groups. The health check intervention was acceptable and demonstrated potential for improved cancer awareness and symptom presentation, especially for non-specific symptoms, in communities most affected by cancer. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s12889-018-5606-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-5989371 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2018 |
publisher | BioMed Central |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-59893712018-06-20 Feasibility and acceptability of a cancer symptom awareness intervention for adults living in socioeconomically deprived communities Smith, Pamela Smits, Stephanie Owen, Sioned Wood, Fiona McCutchan, Grace Carter, Ben Edwards, Adrian Robling, Michael Townson, Julia Brain, Kate BMC Public Health Research Article BACKGROUND: Cancer survival rates in the UK are lower in comparison with similar countries in Europe and this may be linked to socioeconomic inequalities in stage of cancer diagnosis and survival. Targeted cancer awareness interventions have the potential to improve earlier symptomatic diagnosis and reduce socioeconomic inequalities in cancer outcomes. The health check is an innovative, theory-based intervention designed to increase awareness of cancer symptoms and risk factors, and encourage timely help seeking among adults living in deprived communities. METHODS: A prospective, non-randomised evaluation was undertaken to test the feasibility and acceptability of the health check for adults aged 40 years and over living in deprived areas of Wales. Primary outcomes included recruitment and retention of approximately 100 adults, reach to participants in the lowest deprivation quartile, and intervention acceptability. Secondary outcomes included self-reported cancer symptom recognition, help-seeking behaviours and state anxiety pre/post intervention. RESULTS: Of 185 individuals approached, 98 (53%) completed the intervention. Sixty-six of 98 participants were recruited from community settings (67%) and 32 from healthcare settings (33%), with 56 (57%) from the lowest deprivation quartile. Eighty-three (85%) participants completed follow-up assessment. Participants recognised on average one extra cancer symptom post intervention, with improved recognition of and anticipated presentation for non-specific symptoms. State anxiety scores remained stable. Qualitative interviews (n = 25) demonstrated that the intervention was well received and motivated change. CONCLUSIONS: Recruitment was feasible in community and healthcare settings, with good reach to adults from low socioeconomic groups. The health check intervention was acceptable and demonstrated potential for improved cancer awareness and symptom presentation, especially for non-specific symptoms, in communities most affected by cancer. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s12889-018-5606-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. BioMed Central 2018-06-05 /pmc/articles/PMC5989371/ /pubmed/29871618 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12889-018-5606-3 Text en © The Author(s). 2018 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 Smith, Pamela Smits, Stephanie Owen, Sioned Wood, Fiona McCutchan, Grace Carter, Ben Edwards, Adrian Robling, Michael Townson, Julia Brain, Kate Feasibility and acceptability of a cancer symptom awareness intervention for adults living in socioeconomically deprived communities |
title | Feasibility and acceptability of a cancer symptom awareness intervention for adults living in socioeconomically deprived communities |
title_full | Feasibility and acceptability of a cancer symptom awareness intervention for adults living in socioeconomically deprived communities |
title_fullStr | Feasibility and acceptability of a cancer symptom awareness intervention for adults living in socioeconomically deprived communities |
title_full_unstemmed | Feasibility and acceptability of a cancer symptom awareness intervention for adults living in socioeconomically deprived communities |
title_short | Feasibility and acceptability of a cancer symptom awareness intervention for adults living in socioeconomically deprived communities |
title_sort | feasibility and acceptability of a cancer symptom awareness intervention for adults living in socioeconomically deprived communities |
topic | Research Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5989371/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29871618 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12889-018-5606-3 |
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