@Article{Kieszkowska-Grudny2016,
journal="Psychoonkologia",
issn="1429-8538",
year="2016",
title="The first symptoms of cancer and patienst behaviours. How long the patients delay the visits to the doctor and where they look for a medical information",
abstract=" Introduction : The number of cancer cases is increasing every year. A medical technology, which helps in the early detection of cancer, changes dynamically, and more and more effective therapies are introduced. Nevertheless, a mortality from cancer is not decreasing, which may suggest an another reason of such a situation, including nonmedical factors.   The aim of the study:   To examine the period of time from first symptoms to appointment to a doctor and to explore relationships with demographic and psychosocial factors with such behaviors.    Material and method : 101 cancer pts were participated in the study, including 60 women (median 57 years, average 58 years, SD = 10.46 years) and 41 men (median 60 years, average 60.54 years, SD = 10.10 years), who filled out the survey questionnaire.   Results : The results show that 60% of people visited a doctor within 1 month, but in the remaining group even every fifth patient decided to go to a doctor only after 6 months. A dependence was observed in the period of time to first visit, when a usage of the Internet, alternative therapies, as well as a gender and a place of residence were analyzed. The most common source of information about alarming symptoms were newspapers and magazines.    Conclusions : The results show many areas where through educational and motivational activities, we can still shorten the time from the first symptoms to diagnosis and improve treatment outcomes of cancer.",
author="Kieszkowska-Grudny, Anna
and Zając, Katarzyna
and Winiarska, Agata
and Welsyng, Daria
and Strzelczyk, Wojciech
and Sokołowski, Filip
and Ponieważ, Marta
and Plutowski, Dawid
and Bielesz, Katarzyna
and Rucińska, Monika",
pages="123--132",
doi="10.5114/pson.2016.64964",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.5114/pson.2016.64964"
}