Abstract
Objetivo
El menor tiempo empleado en diagnosticar y tratar las enfermedades incide tanto en el bienestar del enfermo como en la calidad asistencial. En este trabajo se plantea el estudio de los tiempos de demora que intervienen en el diagnóstico del cáncer.
Material y métodos
Se ha utilizado el método epidemiológico descriptivo y el análisis estadístico valorando: media, mediana, moda y desviación estándar, para medir los diferentes tiempos de demora. Los datos proceden de un registro hospitalario de cáncer, en el que habitualmente se recogen esos tiempos.
Resultados
El mayor tiempo de demora entre los períodos considerados se estima que es el transcurrido entre los primeros síntomas y la fecha del diagnóstico de sospecha, que se estima en 96 días. Los restantes períodos de tiempo estudiados presentan una demora de alrededor de 26 días de mediana.
Conclusiones
Es importante la actitud del médico de atención primaria, ya que habitualmente es quien se encuentra con los síntomas precoces, así como con los factores de riesgo persistentes en las personas. Por tanto, desempeña un papel muy importante en el diagnóstico precoz, a la vez que en la educación sanitaria de los pacientes.
Palabras clave: Demora en diagnóstico, Cáncer
Abstract
Objective
A reduction in the time used to be able to diagnose an illness influences not only the well being of the patient but also the quality of the medical care. In this work, we have studied the amount of time needed to diagnose cancer.
Material and method
Descriptive methods have been used: average, median, mode and standard deviation in order to know how long it takes to diagnose and treat cancer. The data have been taken from a hospital register.
Results
The longest time elapsed between the periods appears to be the one between the first symptoms and the date the diagnosis is made, which has been calculated to be 96 days on average. The remaining time periods studied showed a time lapse of about 26 days on median.
Discussion
The median has been taken as the mesurement chosen to assess these time periods, which have been notably reduced in the last decade.
Conclusions
The performance of the primary care doctor is of great importance, as he is normally the one who is faced with the precocius symptoms, as well as with the risk factors that persist in the patients. This doctor is therefore the one who can initiate both the early diagnosis and the medical education of the patients.
Key words: Delay diagnosis, Cancer
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