ArticleThe British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners2015
Help seeking for cancer 'alarm' symptoms: a qualitative interview study of primary care patients in the UK.
Article in The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 48 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
48 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Understanding care-seeking of pregnant women from underserved groups: a systematic review and meta-ethnography.Frontiers in public health · 2025Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Which symptoms are linked to a delayed presentation among melanoma patients? A retrospective study.BMC cancer · 2017Trial
- Interventions to Improve Timely Detection and Diagnosis of Cancer Among the Adult Population: A Scoping Review.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Observational
- The pitfalls of "toughing it out": mapping stoic attitudes in cancer patients. A scoping review.Medicine, health care, and philosophy · 2025Article
- Patients' perceptions on reasons for self-referring to the emergency department shortly before a cancer diagnosis: a qualitative study.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2025Article
- Health inequalities in cancer care: a literature review of pathways to diagnosis in the United Kingdom.EClinicalMedicine · 2024Review
- Article
- When things go wrong: experiences of vaginal mesh complications.International urogynecology journal · 2023Article
- Factors affecting patient decisions to undergo testing for cancer symptoms: an exploratory qualitative study in Australian general practice.BJGP open · 2023Article
- How does social context influence appraisal and help-seeking for potential cancer symptoms in adults aged 50 and over? A qualitative interview study.European journal of cancer care · 2022Article
- The SYMPTOM-upper gastrointestinal study: A mixed methods study exploring symptom appraisal and help-seeking in Australian upper gastrointestinal cancer patients.European journal of cancer care · 2022Article
- Factors influencing symptom appraisal and help-seeking of older adults with possible cancer: a mixed-methods systematic review.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2022Article
- Consultations for clinical features of possible cancer and associated urgent referrals before and during the COVID-19 pandemic: an observational cohort study from English primary care.British journal of cancer · 2022Observational
- Is concern for gynaecological alarm symptoms associated with healthcare-seeking? A Danish population-based cross-sectional study.BMC public health · 2022Article
- Building the case for the use of gut feelings in cancer referrals: perspectives of patients referred to a non-specific symptoms pathway.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2022Article
- Shifting between roles of a customer and a seller - patients' experiences of the encounter with primary care physicians when suspicions of cancer exist.International journal of qualitative studies on health and well-being · 2021Article
- Influence of doctor-patient conversations on behaviours of patients presenting to primary care with new or persistent symptoms: a video observation study.BMJ quality & safety · 2020Observational
- Patient symptom experience prior to a diagnosis of oesophageal or gastric cancer: a multi-methods study.BJGP open · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundDelay in help seeking for cancer 'alarm' symptoms has been identified as a contributor to delayed diagnosis.
aimTo understand people's help-seeking decision making for cancer alarm symptoms, without imposing a cancer context. DESIGN AND
settingCommunity-based, qualitative interview study in the UK, using purposive sampling by sex, socioeconomic status, and prior help seeking, with framework analysis of transcripts.
methodInterviewees (n = 48) were recruited from a community-based sample (n = 1724) of adults aged ≥50 years who completed a health survey that included a list of symptoms. Cancer was not mentioned. Participants reporting any of 10 cancer alarm symptoms (n = 915) and who had consented to contact (n = 482) formed the potential pool from which people were invited to an interview focusing on their symptom experiences.
resultsReasons for help seeking included symptom persistence, social influence, awareness/fear of a link with cancer, and 'just instinct'. Perceiving the symptom as trivial or 'normal' was a deterrent, as was stoicism, adopting self-management strategies, and fear of investigations. Negative attitudes to help seeking were common. Participants did not want to be seen as making a fuss, did not want to waste the doctor's time, and were sometimes not confident that the GP could help.
conclusionDecision making about cancer alarm symptoms was complex. Recognition of cancer risk almost always motivated help seeking (more so than the fear of cancer being a deterrent), assisted by recent public-awareness campaigns. As well as symptom persistence motivating help seeking, it could also have the reverse effect. Negative attitudes to help seeking were significant deterrents.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.