Abstract
Background: Targeted public awareness interventions are needed to improve earlier cancer diagnosis and reduce socioeconomic inequalities in cancer outcomes. The health check (intervention) is a touchscreen questionnaire delivered by trained lay advisors that aims to raise awareness of cancer symptoms and risk factors, and encourage timely help seeking. Purpose: Apply Behaviour Change Wheel to intervention refinement by identifying barriers and facilitators to timely symptom presentation among people living in socioeconomically deprived communities. Methods: Primary data (six focus groups with health professionals, community partners and public) and secondary data (systematic review of barriers and facilitators to cancer symptom presentation) were mapped iteratively to the Behaviour Change Wheel. Results: Barriers and facilitators were identified from the systematic review and focus groups comprising 14 members of the public aged over 40, 14 community partners and 14 healthcare professionals. Barriers included poor symptom knowledge and lack of motivation to engage in preventive or proactive behaviours. Facilitators included cues/prompts to action, general practitioner preparedness to listen, and social networks. The following behaviour change techniques were selected to address identified barriers and facilitators: information about health consequences, prompts/cues, credible sources, restricting physical and social environment, social support, goal setting and action planning. Conclusions: The Behaviour Change Wheel triangulated findings from primary and secondary data sources. An intervention combining education and enablement could encourage timely symptom presentation to primary care among people living in socioeconomically deprived communities. Social encouragement and support is needed to increase symptom knowledge, challenge negative cancer beliefs, and prompt decisions to engage with the healthcare system.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 474-488 |
| Number of pages | 15 |
| Journal | Annals of Behavioral Medicine |
| Volume | 52 |
| Issue number | 6 |
| Early online date | 13 Dec 2017 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Jun 2018 |
Bibliographical note
We are grateful to the National Awareness and Early Diagnosis Initiative (NAEDI) for funding this work. The NAEDI funding consortium, under the auspices of the National Cancer Research Institute (NCRI), consists of Cancer Research UK; Department of Health (England); Economic and Social Research Council; Health and Social Care R&D Division, Public Health Agency (Northern Ireland); National Institute for Social Care and Health Research (Wales); and the Scottish Government.We would like to thank ABACus project management team members Tim Banks and Maura Matthews from Tenovus Cancer Care for their ongoing support and involvement in the project. The authors would also like to acknowledge the support of the ABACus steering group (Danny Antebi, Tracey Deacon, Karen Gully, Jane Hanson, Sharon Hillier, Alex Murray, Richard Neal, Gill Richardson, Mark Rogers, and Sara Thomas).
Compliance with Ethical Standards
Keywords
- Cancer
- Complex intervention
- Qualitative
- Symptompresentation
- Inequality
- Behavior change
Access to Document
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