Delay in seeking care for breast symptoms and its associated factors

Background: Breast cancer is the most common cancer among Malaysian and in women worldwide. The incidence of breast cancer is increasing yearly. Early presentation and thus, early detection of breast cancer will lead to better prognosis and survival. Objective: This study aimed to investigate the...

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Main Author: Yen, Soh Jien
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: 2021
Subjects:
Online Access:http://eprints.usm.my/60700/1/Soh%20Jien%20Yen-E.pdf
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author Yen, Soh Jien
author_facet Yen, Soh Jien
author_sort Yen, Soh Jien
collection USM
description Background: Breast cancer is the most common cancer among Malaysian and in women worldwide. The incidence of breast cancer is increasing yearly. Early presentation and thus, early detection of breast cancer will lead to better prognosis and survival. Objective: This study aimed to investigate the delay of presentation time in women with breast symptom and its associated factors. Methods: The study was conducted between January to October 2020, recruiting women with new breast symptoms at their first visit to the clinic. Face-to-face interviews using the standardised Malay language questionnaires, and the date of symptom first develop and first visit the clinic was recorded. Presentation time was calculated based on the number of days between the two date. Those with presentation time more than 90 days was considered as a delayed group. Associated factors were recorded, cross-tabulation and multiple logistic regression with the delay presentation for were used for analysis. Result: In total, 106 respondents were included. The mean age of the respondents was 33.99 (SD 11.207), and most of them (73.6%), were age 39 and younger. The respondents mainly were Malay ethnicity (98.1%) and Chinese (1.9%). Most of the respondents first visited the local government health clinic (35.8%) for breast symptoms. They presented symptoms were breast lump (75.5%), followed by pain (15.1%), nipple discharge (5.7%), skin changes of breast (0.9%) and others (2.8%). Only 10.4% of the respondents went for alternative treatment before for the breast symptoms. The mean of presentation time was 98.91 days (SD 323.71) with median of 14.5 days. Approximately 61.3% of the respondents came within 1-month time. Only 19.8% of the respondents had delay presentation of more than 3 months. The factor that significantly associated with the delay in the presentation was the interpretation of the symptom as not dangerous with adjusted OR 3.05 (95% CI 1.11,8.38) with adjustment of the symptom of breast lump Conclusion: The percentage of delay presentation was lower compared to the previous local study in Malaysia. The significant factor associated with the delay for breast care was the interpretation of the symptom as harmless. The future education program must be targeted and tailored to the local community.
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spelling usm.eprints-607002024-07-30T08:33:28Z http://eprints.usm.my/60700/ Delay in seeking care for breast symptoms and its associated factors Yen, Soh Jien R Medicine RA440-440.87 Study and teaching. Research RC254-282 Neoplasms. Tumors. Oncology (including Cancer) Background: Breast cancer is the most common cancer among Malaysian and in women worldwide. The incidence of breast cancer is increasing yearly. Early presentation and thus, early detection of breast cancer will lead to better prognosis and survival. Objective: This study aimed to investigate the delay of presentation time in women with breast symptom and its associated factors. Methods: The study was conducted between January to October 2020, recruiting women with new breast symptoms at their first visit to the clinic. Face-to-face interviews using the standardised Malay language questionnaires, and the date of symptom first develop and first visit the clinic was recorded. Presentation time was calculated based on the number of days between the two date. Those with presentation time more than 90 days was considered as a delayed group. Associated factors were recorded, cross-tabulation and multiple logistic regression with the delay presentation for were used for analysis. Result: In total, 106 respondents were included. The mean age of the respondents was 33.99 (SD 11.207), and most of them (73.6%), were age 39 and younger. The respondents mainly were Malay ethnicity (98.1%) and Chinese (1.9%). Most of the respondents first visited the local government health clinic (35.8%) for breast symptoms. They presented symptoms were breast lump (75.5%), followed by pain (15.1%), nipple discharge (5.7%), skin changes of breast (0.9%) and others (2.8%). Only 10.4% of the respondents went for alternative treatment before for the breast symptoms. The mean of presentation time was 98.91 days (SD 323.71) with median of 14.5 days. Approximately 61.3% of the respondents came within 1-month time. Only 19.8% of the respondents had delay presentation of more than 3 months. The factor that significantly associated with the delay in the presentation was the interpretation of the symptom as not dangerous with adjusted OR 3.05 (95% CI 1.11,8.38) with adjustment of the symptom of breast lump Conclusion: The percentage of delay presentation was lower compared to the previous local study in Malaysia. The significant factor associated with the delay for breast care was the interpretation of the symptom as harmless. The future education program must be targeted and tailored to the local community. 2021 Thesis NonPeerReviewed application/pdf en http://eprints.usm.my/60700/1/Soh%20Jien%20Yen-E.pdf Yen, Soh Jien (2021) Delay in seeking care for breast symptoms and its associated factors. Masters thesis, Universiti Sains Malaysia.
spellingShingle R Medicine
RA440-440.87 Study and teaching. Research
RC254-282 Neoplasms. Tumors. Oncology (including Cancer)
Yen, Soh Jien
Delay in seeking care for breast symptoms and its associated factors
title Delay in seeking care for breast symptoms and its associated factors
title_full Delay in seeking care for breast symptoms and its associated factors
title_fullStr Delay in seeking care for breast symptoms and its associated factors
title_full_unstemmed Delay in seeking care for breast symptoms and its associated factors
title_short Delay in seeking care for breast symptoms and its associated factors
title_sort delay in seeking care for breast symptoms and its associated factors
topic R Medicine
RA440-440.87 Study and teaching. Research
RC254-282 Neoplasms. Tumors. Oncology (including Cancer)
url http://eprints.usm.my/60700/1/Soh%20Jien%20Yen-E.pdf
work_keys_str_mv AT yensohjien delayinseekingcareforbreastsymptomsanditsassociatedfactors