title: Medical and psychosocial predictors of delay in seeking medical consultation for breast symptoms in women in a public sector setting.
abstract: We examined demographic, medical and psychosocial factors related to delay in seeking medical consultation for breast symptoms. In this cross-sectional survey, 124 women with breast symptoms attending an outpatient breast surgery clinic in a county general hospital completed questionnaires measuring demographic, medical and psychosocial variables. Our outcome variable was delay in seeking medical consultation. Younger age (p <or= 0.05), less education (p <or= 0.01), absence of a lump (p <or= 0.05), lower perceived risk (p <or= 0.001), less spirituality (p <or= 0.01), cost (p <or= 0.001) and not wanting to think about breast symptom(s) (p <or= 0.05) were related to delay. Multivariate analyses showed absence of a breast lump by education interaction (p <or= 0.05), risk perception (p <or= 0.001), spirituality (p <or= 0.01) and cost (p <or= 0.001) collectively accounted for 38.4% of the variance in delay. Health promotion programs targeting low-income populations should emphasize the importance of breast symptoms other than lumps, especially to younger and less educated women.
authors.affiliation: Menninger Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas 77030, USA. loisf@bcm.tmc.edu
authors.forename: Lois C
authors.initials: LC
authors.lastname: Friedman
authors.forename: Mamta
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kalidas
authors.forename: Richard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Elledge
authors.forename: Mario F
authors.initials: MF
authors.lastname: Dulay
authors.forename: Catherine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Romero
authors.forename: Jenny
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Chang
authors.forename: Kathleen R
authors.initials: KR
authors.lastname: Liscum
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000554:Ambulatory Care Facilities / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D001007:Anxiety / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology; D001294:Attitude to Health; D001941:Breast Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology*; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology*; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006306:Health Surveys; D006779:Hospitals, Public; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009042:Motivation; D010342:Patient Acceptance of Health Care / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D017150:Public Sector; D012017:Referral and Consultation / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D029181:Spirituality; D013781:Texas