Table 2.
Experience of cancer ‘warning signs’ and symptom attributions.
| aPersistent cough or hoarseness | Persistent change in bowel habits | Persistent unexplained pain |
Persistent change in bladder habits | Change in the appearance of a mole | Unexplained lump | Sore that does not heal | Unexplained weight loss | Persistent difficulty swallowing |
Unexplained bleeding | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| % (n) reporting symptom | 16.9 (629) | 12.9 (483) | 12.8 (476) | 11.1 (413) | 7.3 (273) | 5.5 (205) | 4.0 (148) | 3.8 (143) | 3.2 (120) | 2.9 (108) |
| Attribution⁎ % (n) | (n = 545) | (n = 363) | (n = 370) | (n = 294) | (n = 178) | (n = 147) | (n = 114) | (n = 107) | (n = 87) | (n = 86) |
| Physical (non-cancer) | 59.8 (326) | 39.0 (142) | 53.2 (197) | 47.3 (139) | 15.7 (28) | 46.3 (68) | 49.1 (56) | 27.1 (29) | 52.9 (46) | 55.8 (48) |
| Psychological | 3.1 (17) | 8.5 (31) | 4.3 (16) | 3.7 (11) | 0.6 (1) | 2.0 (3) | 1.0 (0.9) | 18.7 (20) | 9.2 (8) | 3.5 (3) |
| External/normalising | 33.8 (184) | 45.7 (166) | 27.8 (103) | 41.2 (121) | 44.4 (79) | 17.0 (25) | 28.1 (32) | 44.9 (48) | 16.1 (14) | 20.9 (18) |
| Cancer | 1.5 (8) | 3.0 (11) | 1.4 (5) | 0.7 (2) | 10.7 (19) | 8.8 (13) | 3.5 (4) | 0.9 (1) | 4.6 (4) | 4.7 (4) |
| Don’t know | 6.6 (36) | 9.4 (34) | 12.2 (45) | 10.9 (32) | 18.5 (33) | 21.1 (31) | 15.8 (18) | 12.1 (13) | 18.4 (16) | 14.0 (12) |
a
Persistent was defined as ‘doesn’t go away’.
⁎
Each person could make more than one attribution and all attributions are included, so columns don’t add up to 100%.