Table 3. Recognition of each cancer symptom according to the nine ethnic groups, with percentage of participants who recognised each symptom and odds ratios (99% confidence intervals) adjusted for age group, gender and deprivation (n=38 492).

Symptoms/ethnic groups	White British	White Irish	Indian	Pakistani	Bangladeshi	Black Caribbean	Black African	Chinese	Other
Unexplained lump or swelling	96%	94%	87%	83%	77%	88%	83%	89%	88%
	1.00	0.74 (0.43–1.26)	0.27a (0.20–0.36)	0.23a (0.17–0.31)	0.15a (0.11–0.21)	0.32a (0.24–0.43)	0.22a (0.17–0.28)	0.33a (0.17–0.63)	0.30a (0.25–0.35)
Unexplained persistent pain	79%	80%	71%	71%	70%	72%	66%	80%	74%
	1.00	1.05 (0.77–1.43)	0.65a (0.53–0.80)	0.68a (0.54–0.86)	0.67a (0.50–0.89)	0.71a (0.58–0.88)	0.54a (0.45–0.65)	1.04 (0.63–1.69)	0.74a (0.66–0.84)
Unexplained bleeding	87%	88%	76%	73%	69%	77%	67%	75%	75%
	1.00	1.09 (0.75–1.59)	0.55a (0.44–0.69)	0.51a (0.40–0.65)	0.44a (0.33–0.58)	0.56a (0.45–0.70)	0.36a (0.30–0.44)	0.53a (0.33–0.84)	0.53a (0.47–0.59)
Persistent cough or hoarseness	70%	69%	59%	57%	53%	56%	51%	58%	61%
	1.00	0.98 (0.75–1.29)	0.73a (0.60–0.88)	0.70a (0.57–0.87)	0.61a (0.47–0.79)	0.63a (0.52–0.76)	0.55a (0.46–0.66)	0.70 (0.47–1.05)	0.78a (0.70–0.87)
Bowel/bladder habits change	89%	89%	74%	70%	61%	74%	65%	71%	76%
	1.00	1.08 (0.72–1.62)	0.41a (0.33–0.51)	0.37a (0.29–0.46)	0.25a (0.19–0.33)	0.41a (0.33–0.51)	0.28a (0.23–0.33)	0.36a (0.23–0.55)	0.46a (0.41–0.53)
Difficulty in swallowing	77%	79%	61%	58%	49%	62%	51%	60%	64%
	1.00	1.14 (0.85–1.55)	0.54a (0.44–0.66)	0.51a (0.41–0.63)	0.36a (0.28–0.47)	0.55a (0.45–0.66)	0.37a (0.31–0.45)	0.52a (0.35–0.77)	0.62a (0.56–0.69)
Change in mole appearance	94%	89%	75%	67%	59%	77%	66%	74%	79%
	1.00	0.53a (0.36–0.80)	0.20a (0.16–0.25)	0.15a (0.12–0.19)	0.11a (0.08–0.14)	0.24a (0.19–0.30)	0.14a (0.11–0.17)	0.18a (0.11–0.30)	0.25a (0.22–0.29)
Sore that does not heal	69%	68%	59%	57%	51%	55%	53%	50%	61%
	1.00	0.97 (0.75–1.27)	0.75a (0.61–0.91)	0.72a (0.58–0.89)	0.58a (0.45–0.76)	0.60a (0.50–0.72)	0.60a (0.51–0.72)	0.51a (0.34–0.76)	0.79a (0.72–0.88)
Unexplained weight loss	86%	84%	73%	70%	69%	74%	65%	75%	75%
	1.00	0.89 (0.64–1.26)	0.53a (0.43–0.66)	0.46a (0.37–0.59)	0.46a (0.35–0.61)	0.53a (0.43–0.66)	0.37a (0.31–0.45)	0.58a (0.37–0.92)	0.57a (0.51–0.65)

These estimates were derived from a model including one of the ethnic groups and each of the cancer symptoms, adjusted for age groups, gender and deprivation, measured using quintiles of the income domain of indices of multiple deprivation index.

^aStatistically significant at P<0.01 level (99% confidence intervals).