Table 1 Patient characteristics and their association with fear of cancer recurrence and concern about the carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) blood test.

Patient characteristics	No. of patients (%) n = 91	No. of patients concerned about recurrence (%)	p Value	No. of patients concerned about CEA test (%)	p Value
Sex
Male	64	13 (20)		11 (17)
Female	27	6 (22)	0.52	4 (15)	0.23
Age
⩽60 years	32	3 (9)		7 (22)
61–70 years	39	7 (18)	0.07	5 (13)	0.8
>70 years	20	8 (40)		3 (15)
General health
Poor/fair	9	1 (11)		1 (11)
Good/excellent	82	18 (22)	0.06	14 (17)	>0.2
Marital status
Married/cohabiting	76	17 (22)		14 (18)
Single/divorced/widowed	15	2 (13)	0.64	1 (7)	0.64
Children
⩾21 years old	64	14 (22)		10 (16)
<21 years old	10	5 (50)	0.034	4 (40)	0.06
Age not stated	4
Time since curative resection
⩽3 years	77	17 (22)		15 (19)
>3 years	14	2 (14)	0.06	0	>0.5