Factors Influencing Patient Delay in Iranian Women with Self-Discovered Breast Cancer Symptom

Delayed presentation of symptomatic breast cancer is a public health issue in Iran, making amajor contribution to low survival. Despite the importance of this problem, current knowledgeis insufficient to inform interventions to shorten patient delay. The aim of this study was toexplore factors influencing patient delay in Iranian women with self-discovered breast cancersymptom. This qualitative study was conducted during 2012-2013. Purposeful sampling wasused to recruit 20 Iranian women with self-discovered symptoms of breast cancer whoattended the Cancer Institute of Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. Datawere collected through semi-structured in-depth audiotaped interviews, which weretranscribed and analyzed using conventional content analysis with MAXQDA softwareversion 10. Content analysis of the data revealed four main themes related to the delay inseeking medical help including: 1) attributing symptoms to the benign conditions; 2)conditional health behavior; 3) inhibiting emotional expression; and 4) barriers to access tohealth care systems. These results suggest that patient delay is influenced by complex andmultiple factors. Effective intervention to reduce patient delay for breast cancer should bedeveloped by focusing on improvement of women’s medical knowledge, managingpatients’ emotional expression and reform of the referral system.

Keywords:

Breast Cancer , Self-Discovered Symptoms , Delay in Presentation , Influencing Factors , Iran