Table 6.
Barriers to seeking help after finding a possible symptom of breast cancer
| Could you say if any of these reasons might put you off going to the doctor? | Number (%) of students who responded as sometimes yes or often yes | chi square | p-value | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pre-clinical Medical Students (n = 128) | Clinical Medical Students (n = 138) | Total Students (n = 266) | |||
| Are you too embarrassed to go and see the doctor? | 66 (53.2%) | 63 (46.0%) | 129 (49.4%) | 1.365 | 0.148 |
| Are you too scared to go and see the doctor? | 51 (40.5%) | 49 (35.5%) | 100 (37.9%) | 0.691 | 0.241 |
| Are you worried about wasting the doctor’s time? | 13 (10.7%) | 10 (7.2%) | 23 (8.8%) | 0.933 | 0.227 |
| Do you find your doctor difficult to talk to? | 41 (33.1%) | 41 (29.9%) | 82 (31.4%) | 0.297 | 0.340 |
| Is it difficult for you to make an appointment with the doctor? | 30 (23.4%) | 37 (26.8%) | 67 (25.2%) | 0.401 | 0.312 |
| Are you too busy to make time to go to the doctor? | 74 (59.7%) | 78 (56.5%) | 152 (58.0%) | 0.267 | 0.348 |
| Do you have too many other things to worry about than going to the doctor? | 69 (55.2%) | 64 (46.4%) | 133 (50.6%) | 2.043 | 0.096 |
| Is it difficult for you to arrange transport to the doctor’s surgery? | 16 (13.0%) | 19 (13.8%) | 35 (13.4%) | 0.032 | 0.502 |
| Are you afraid that worrying about what the doctor might find may stop you from going to the doctor? | 44 (35.5%) | 35 (25.4%) | 79 (30.2%) | 3.177 | 0.050 |
| Not feeling confident talking about my symptom with the doctor | 62 (50.0%) | 53 (38.4%) | 115 (43.9%) | 3.565 | 0.039 |