%0 Journal Article
%A Petrova, Dafina
%A Okan, Yasmina
%A Salamanca-Fernandez, Elena
%A Dominguez-Lopez, Santiago
%A Sanchez-Perez, Maria-Jose
%A Rodriguez-Barranco, Miguel
%T Psychological factors related to time to help-seeking for cancer symptoms: a meta-analysis across cancer sites.
%D 2019
%U http://hdl.handle.net/10668/14226
%X The time patients wait before seeking help for cancer symptoms is among the most important factors contributing to diagnostic delays in cancer. We reviewed the association between time to help-seeking and three psychological factors: symptom knowledge, symptom interpretation, and beliefs about cancer. Forty-seven studies met the inclusion criteria, providing data from 22 countries concerning seven cancer sites. Better symptom knowledge was related to lower odds of a long help-seeking interval in both studies with healthy populations (OR = .73, 95% CI [.63, .84], k = 19) and patients (OR = .40, 95% CI [.23, .69], k = 12), and so was interpreting experienced symptoms as cancer-related (OR = .52, 95% CI [.36, .75], k = 13 studies with patients). More positive beliefs about cancer (i.e., that cancer is treatable) were associated with lower odds of a long help-seeking interval in both studies with healthy populations (OR = .70, 95% CI [.52, .92], k = 11) and with patients (OR = .51, 95% CI [.32, .82], k = 7). Symptom knowledge, interpretation, and beliefs about cancer are likely to be universal predictors of help-seeking and should be incorporated into theoretical models of patient help-seeking and interventions aiming to reduce delays.
%K Cancer
%K beliefs
%K diagnostic delay
%K knowledge
%K patient interval
%K symptoms
%K time to help-seeking
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