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abstract:
Gynecological cancer alarm symptoms: is contact with specialist care associated with lifestyle and socioeconomic status? A population-based study
24 MAY 2016
Introduction
To
determine the proportion of patients who were referred to specialist
care after reporting gynecological cancer alarm symptoms to their
general practitioner. To investigate whether contact with specialist
care was associated with lifestyle factors or socioeconomic status.
Material and methods
Nationwide
population-based prospective cohort study in Denmark, based on a random
sample of 51 090 women aged 20 years or older from the general
population. A web-based questionnaire regarding gynecological alarm
symptoms and lifestyle was distributed to the invited individuals. Data
about contact with specialist care were obtained from the National
Patient Register and the National Health Insurance Service Registry,
while information about socioeconomic status was collected from
Statistics Denmark. Main outcome measures were percentages of patients
having contact with specialist care and odds ratios (ORs) for
associations between specialist care contact, lifestyle factors and
socioeconomic status.
Results
The
study included 25 866 non-pregnant women; 2957 reported the onset of at
least one gynecological cancer alarm symptom, and 683 of these (23.1%)
reported symptoms to their general practitioner. The proportion of
individuals having contact with specialist care ranged from 39.3% (pain
during intercourse) to 47.8% (bleeding during intercourse) Individuals
with higher educational level had significantly higher odds of contact
with a specialist (OR 1.86, CI; 1.17–2.95).
Conclusions
Educational
level influence contact with specialist care among patients with
gynecological cancer alarm symptoms. Future studies should investigate
inequalities in access to the secondary healthcare system.
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