Awareness and help-seeking for early signs and symptoms of lung cancer: A qualitative study with high-risk individuals

Abstract

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Primary healthcare professionals’ perspectives on patient help-seeking for lung cancer warning signs and symptoms: a qualitative study

“…The cost of GP visits and long waiting times emerged as potential barriers. These ndings are well documented in previous research with at-risk patients [11,14]. However, in the current study, there was no full agreement on how cost impacted on patients with LC symptoms due to the eligibility of most high-risk groups for GP visit/medical cards.…”

“…This is a common phenomenon in the health literature, where one poor experience with HCPs can undermine future engagement with them thereafter. This barrier is often more pronounced for illnesses that are associated with lifestyle behaviours like smoking [11], which often triggers feelings of embarrassment, guilt, and fear of judgement among patients. Indeed, higher levels of perceived LC stigma are associated with a longer wait to seek medical help for symptoms of concern [12].…”

“…Other factors linked to help-seeking delay relate to the fear, denial, and anger that a potential cancer diagnosis can trigger among patients [10,11]. Such barriers were perceived to be common among men and more so among those residing in rural areas where access to healthcare services is more limited.…”

“…This has detrimental effects on timely diagnosis, quality of life, cost of healthcare, and patients' eligibility for curative treatment [6,9]. In addition to lack of symptom awareness and symptom misappraisal among patients, several healthcare-related barriers to patient help-seeking and early detection of LC exist such as poor patienthealthcare professional (HCP) relationship and lack of healthcare access [8,10,11]. LC stigma also impacts negatively on help-seeking, leading to a median waiting time of 41 days from symptom onset to medical help-seeking [12].…”

“…While recent studies have explored LC help-seeking from the perspective of at-risk populations [11,14], there has been very little research conducted amongst primary HCPs who play a key role in advising and referring patients who present to them with signs and symptoms suggestive of LC, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, this study explored perceived barriers to patient help-seeking and strategies to enhance help-seeking for LC warning signs and symptoms from the perspective of primary HCPs.…”