Table 1.

Sample characteristics

Characteristics	Participants
Recruitment source	ICBP Welsh database (n = 20; 26 % response rate calculated as a proportion of those eligible for the study after verbal contact was made) Snowball sampling (n = 8) ‘Communities First’ Partners (n = 2)
Gender	Female (n = 17) Male (n = 13)
Age	50–60 years (n = 10) 61–70 years (n = 13) 71–80 years (n = 5) 81–90 years (n = 2)
Symptom experience	Previous diagnosis of cancer (n = 5) Reported cancer symptoms (n = 16) No cancer symptom experience (n = 9)
Educational attainment	Finished school before age 15 (n = 15) No qualifications or left school at age 16 (n = 15)
Main source of household income	Wages or salary (n = 3) Pension (n = 18) Benefits (n = 8) Other (n = 1)
Home ownership	Owns home (n = 6)a Privately rented housing (n = 11) Housing association or sheltered housing (n = 7) Council owned property (n = 6)
Car ownership	Owns car (n = 9) Does not own car (n = 21)

^aThese participants had inherited the family home, where they had lived their entire lives