Shedding light on women's help seeking behaviour for self discovered breast symptoms

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• 作者：M¨¢ir¨ªn O'Mahony ; Geraldine McCarthy ; Paul Corcoran ; Josephine Hegarty
• 关键词：Breast cancer ; Breast symptoms ; Help seeking behaviour ; Delay ; Oncology nursing
• 刊名：European Journal of Oncology Nursing
• 出版年：2013
• 出版时间：October, 2013
• 年：2013
• 卷：17
• 期：5
• 页码：632-639
• 全文大小：610 K

文摘

Purpose

To describe women's help seeking behaviour (HSB) and the associated influencing factors on self-discovery of a breast symptom.

Methods

A descriptive, correlational survey design was used. Following ethical approval, survey data were collected from women (n?=?449) attending the breast clinics of two large urban hospitals within the Republic of Ireland.

Results

The majority of women (69.9 % ; n?=?314) sought help (by visiting their General practitioner, GP) within one month, 30.1 % (n?=?135) delayed help seeking for more than one month following symptom discovery and 16.7 % (n?=?75) delayed for three months or more. The factors most significantly associated with delayed HSB were knowledge around symptom identity (Odds Ratio (OR)?=?4.80, p?=?0.005); ignoring the symptom and hoping it would go away (OR?=?10.72, p?<?0.001) and women's belief that the symptom would persist for a long time (OR?=?1.18, p?=?0.023). Being afraid on symptom discovery (OR?=?0.37, p?=?0.005) was associated with reduced risk of delayed HSB.

Conclusions

It is encouraging to see that the majority of women who find a breast symptom seek help promptly. However, a small cohort of women delay seeking help from their GP. HSB is influenced by multiple factors which can impact on patient outcomes. Findings are important for oncology nurses who have a key role to play in promoting breast awareness, prompt help seeking and early detection and treatment of breast cancer, amongst women.