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Women's experiences along the ovarian cancer diagnostic pathway in Catalonia: A qualitative study
BACKGROUND: Early detection of symptoms and prompt diagnosis of ovarian cancer are considered important avenues for improving patient experiences and outcomes. METHODS: This qualitative study used a phenomenological approach to perform patient interviews, collecting individual accounts of the predia...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
John Wiley and Sons Inc.
2022
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9854297/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36447409 http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/hex.13681 |
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author | Vela‐Vallespín, Carmen Medina‐Perucha, Laura Jacques‐Aviñó, Constanza Codern‐Bové, Núria Harris, Meggan Borras, Josep M. Marzo‐Castillejo, Mercè |
author_facet | Vela‐Vallespín, Carmen Medina‐Perucha, Laura Jacques‐Aviñó, Constanza Codern‐Bové, Núria Harris, Meggan Borras, Josep M. Marzo‐Castillejo, Mercè |
author_sort | Vela‐Vallespín, Carmen |
collection | PubMed |
description | BACKGROUND: Early detection of symptoms and prompt diagnosis of ovarian cancer are considered important avenues for improving patient experiences and outcomes. METHODS: This qualitative study used a phenomenological approach to perform patient interviews, collecting individual accounts of the prediagnostic phase in women diagnosed and treated for ovarian cancer in 2016–2017. Purposive sampling was used to obtain a diverse sample of 24 participants, while thematic content analysis was used to extract themes and subthemes from interview data. RESULTS: Three themes and nine subthemes were identified. The first theme was women's delay in recognizing symptoms and seeking care, with subthemes on the lack of knowledge about early signs of ovarian cancer, gender‐related barriers and false reassurance from negative test results. A second theme was missed opportunities during healthcare encounters, due to misattribution of women's symptoms by their physicians, underestimation of symptom severity and need for mediation and inadequate tests and/or false negative results. Finally, interviews highlighted the use of resources and alternative healthcare pathways, including complementary/alternative medicines, access to private health care and women's capacity for action and decision‐making (agency) about their health. CONCLUSION: Delayed diagnosis of ovarian cancer is rooted in both individual factors (lack of health literacy, reluctance to seek care) and systemic issues (missed opportunities in healthcare encounters, access to timely specialist care). Further research is needed to investigate the extent to which traditional gender roles and socioeconomic inequalities condition women's ability to manage their own health and to interact with health professionals and the health system. PATIENT AND PUBLIC CONTRIBUTION: In addition to the patient participation during the interviews, one author was a representative of a patient association. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-9854297 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2022 |
publisher | John Wiley and Sons Inc. |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-98542972023-01-24 Women's experiences along the ovarian cancer diagnostic pathway in Catalonia: A qualitative study Vela‐Vallespín, Carmen Medina‐Perucha, Laura Jacques‐Aviñó, Constanza Codern‐Bové, Núria Harris, Meggan Borras, Josep M. Marzo‐Castillejo, Mercè Health Expect Original Articles BACKGROUND: Early detection of symptoms and prompt diagnosis of ovarian cancer are considered important avenues for improving patient experiences and outcomes. METHODS: This qualitative study used a phenomenological approach to perform patient interviews, collecting individual accounts of the prediagnostic phase in women diagnosed and treated for ovarian cancer in 2016–2017. Purposive sampling was used to obtain a diverse sample of 24 participants, while thematic content analysis was used to extract themes and subthemes from interview data. RESULTS: Three themes and nine subthemes were identified. The first theme was women's delay in recognizing symptoms and seeking care, with subthemes on the lack of knowledge about early signs of ovarian cancer, gender‐related barriers and false reassurance from negative test results. A second theme was missed opportunities during healthcare encounters, due to misattribution of women's symptoms by their physicians, underestimation of symptom severity and need for mediation and inadequate tests and/or false negative results. Finally, interviews highlighted the use of resources and alternative healthcare pathways, including complementary/alternative medicines, access to private health care and women's capacity for action and decision‐making (agency) about their health. CONCLUSION: Delayed diagnosis of ovarian cancer is rooted in both individual factors (lack of health literacy, reluctance to seek care) and systemic issues (missed opportunities in healthcare encounters, access to timely specialist care). Further research is needed to investigate the extent to which traditional gender roles and socioeconomic inequalities condition women's ability to manage their own health and to interact with health professionals and the health system. PATIENT AND PUBLIC CONTRIBUTION: In addition to the patient participation during the interviews, one author was a representative of a patient association. John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2022-11-29 /pmc/articles/PMC9854297/ /pubmed/36447409 http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/hex.13681 Text en © 2022 The Authors. Health Expectations published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article under the terms of the http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
spellingShingle | Original Articles Vela‐Vallespín, Carmen Medina‐Perucha, Laura Jacques‐Aviñó, Constanza Codern‐Bové, Núria Harris, Meggan Borras, Josep M. Marzo‐Castillejo, Mercè Women's experiences along the ovarian cancer diagnostic pathway in Catalonia: A qualitative study |
title | Women's experiences along the ovarian cancer diagnostic pathway in Catalonia: A qualitative study |
title_full | Women's experiences along the ovarian cancer diagnostic pathway in Catalonia: A qualitative study |
title_fullStr | Women's experiences along the ovarian cancer diagnostic pathway in Catalonia: A qualitative study |
title_full_unstemmed | Women's experiences along the ovarian cancer diagnostic pathway in Catalonia: A qualitative study |
title_short | Women's experiences along the ovarian cancer diagnostic pathway in Catalonia: A qualitative study |
title_sort | women's experiences along the ovarian cancer diagnostic pathway in catalonia: a qualitative study |
topic | Original Articles |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9854297/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36447409 http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/hex.13681 |
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