Fish Jennifer A, Prichard Ivanka, Ettridge Kerry, Grunfeld Elizabeth A, Wilson Carlene
Flinders Centre for Innovation in Cancer, School of Medicine, Flinders University, Bedford Park, South Australia, Australia.
Social Health Sciences, School of Health Sciences, Flinders University, Bedford Park, South Australia, Australia.
Psychooncology. 2015 Oct;24(10):1222-1232. doi: 10.1002/pon.3912. Epub 2015 Jul 23.
Effectiveness of cancer control partly depends upon early identification and treatment. Men appear to be more likely to delay help-seeking for symptoms, resulting in later diagnosis. This review aims to provide a mixed research synthesis of the psychosocial barriers to and facilitators of help-seeking for cancer symptoms among men.
Systematic methods were followed, including a predefined research question and search strategy. Searches retrieved 7131 international records from online databases: MEDLINE (n = 3011), PubMed (n = 471), SCOPUS (n = 896), Informit (n = 131), PsychINFO (n = 347), and Web of Science (n = 2275). Forty studies were eligible for inclusion in the review (25 qualitative studies, 11 quantitative studies, and 4 mixed-method studies).
There was strong observational evidence for several psychosocial barriers to men's help-seeking behaviour: low cancer knowledge and inaccurate symptom interpretation, embarrassment and fear, and conformity to masculine gender role norms. The strongest facilitating factor associated with men's help-seeking behaviour was encouragement and support of spouses and family members. The majority of research was qualitative and used small samples, making generalisations to the wider population difficult.
Men's help-seeking for cancer symptoms is influenced by several psychosocial factors, which, in part, may be gender-specific. Health promotion initiatives to improve help-seeking behaviour among men should aim to increase cancer knowledge, reduce embarrassment and fear, address social norms deterring timely help-seeking, and acknowledge informal help-seeking with spouses and family members. Increasing the theoretical grounding of research could aid cohesion across the research area and the design of effective health promotion interventions. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
癌症控制的有效性部分取决于早期识别和治疗。男性似乎更有可能推迟因症状而寻求帮助，从而导致诊断延迟。本综述旨在对男性因癌症症状寻求帮助的心理社会障碍和促进因素进行综合研究。
采用系统方法，包括预先确定的研究问题和检索策略。检索从在线数据库中获取了7131条国际记录：医学索引数据库（n = 3011）、PubMed（n = 471）、Scopus数据库（n = 896）、Informit数据库（n = 131）、心理学文摘数据库（n = 347）和科学引文索引数据库（n = 2275）。40项研究符合纳入本综述的条件（25项定性研究、11项定量研究和4项混合方法研究）。
有强有力的观察证据表明存在多种阻碍男性寻求帮助行为的心理社会障碍：癌症知识匮乏和对症状的错误解读、尴尬和恐惧以及对男性性别角色规范的遵从。与男性寻求帮助行为相关的最强促进因素是配偶和家庭成员的鼓励与支持。大多数研究是定性的且样本量较小，难以推广至更广泛的人群。
男性因癌症症状寻求帮助受到多种心理社会因素的影响，其中部分因素可能具有性别特异性。旨在改善男性寻求帮助行为的健康促进举措应旨在增加癌症知识、减少尴尬和恐惧、解决阻碍及时寻求帮助的社会规范，并认可向配偶和家庭成员寻求非正式帮助。加强研究的理论基础有助于该研究领域的整合以及有效健康促进干预措施的设计。版权所有© 2015约翰·威利父子有限公司。
