Centre for Primary Care, Institute of Population Health, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK.
Eur J Cancer Care (Engl). 2013 Nov;22(6):709-13. doi: 10.1111/ecc.12078. Epub 2013 Jun 4.
While there has been no clear consensus on the potential for earlier diagnosis of lung cancer, recent research has suggested that the time between symptom onset and consultation can be long enough to plausibly affect prognosis. In this article, we present a review of the literature concerning help-seeking delays in lung cancer presentation, and more specifically, the role and influence that social factors may play in determining when and how people decide to seek medical help. We also consider how these factors contribute to patients' understanding of symptoms and illness indicators. We suggest that while there is research highlighting the importance of psychosocial influences on the general help-seeking behaviour of people with concerns about cancer, existing studies are mainly retrospective, and very little work has focused on identifying triggers and barriers specific to lung cancer. Further, we propose that while there have been a number of recent initiatives to raise awareness of the early signs of lung cancer, aimed at both patients and health professionals, little information provision has been targeted specifically at the formal and informal network level. This may be a useful avenue to pursue in future initiatives.
虽然目前对于早期诊断肺癌的可能性尚未达成明确共识，但最近的研究表明，从症状出现到就诊的时间可能足够长，从而可能对预后产生影响。本文综述了有关肺癌就诊时寻求帮助的延迟的文献，更具体地说，综述了社会因素在确定人们何时以及如何决定寻求医疗帮助方面可能发挥的作用和影响。我们还考虑了这些因素如何影响患者对症状和疾病指标的理解。我们认为，虽然有研究强调了心理社会因素对有癌症担忧的人一般寻求帮助行为的重要性，但现有的研究主要是回顾性的，很少有研究专门针对肺癌的特定触发因素和障碍。此外，我们提出，虽然最近已经采取了一些措施来提高人们对肺癌早期迹象的认识，目标是针对患者和卫生专业人员，但很少有信息提供是专门针对正式和非正式网络层面的。这可能是未来举措中值得探索的一个途径。
