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Delay in seeking advice for symptoms that potentially indicate bowel cancer
Jill Cockburn1, Chris Paul, Flora Tzelepis
1Cancer Council NSW, Cancer Education Research Program, School of Medical Practice and Population Health, University of Newcastle, NSW, Australia. jillc@mail.newcastle.edu.au
Objectives:
To document knowledge, behavior and experiences of adults regarding potential signs and symptoms of bowel cancer.
Methods:
Telephone interviews with 1332 randomly selected adults, using similar questions to a survey conducted in 1988.
Results:
Twenty three percent (n=306) of respondents reported that they had experienced blood in bowel motions and about one third of these reported that they did not seek medical advice at all.
Conclusions:
As there has been no change in help seeking for potential symptoms of bowel cancer from similar studies conducted 15 years ago, there are concerns for encouraging behaviors that will result in the early detection of colorectal cancer.