An evaluation of the impact of large-scale interventions to raise public awareness of a lung cancer symptom.
Br J Cancer
; 112(1): 207-16, 2015 Jan 06.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-25461805
ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION:
Long-term lung cancer survival in England has improved little in recent years and is worse than many countries. The Department of Health funded a campaign to raise public awareness of persistent cough as a lung cancer symptom and encourage people with the symptom to visit their GP. This was piloted regionally within England before a nationwide rollout.METHODS:
To evaluate the campaign's impact, data were analysed for various metrics covering public awareness of symptoms and process measures, through to diagnosis, staging, treatment and 1-year survival (available for regional pilot only).RESULTS:
Compared with the same time in the previous year, there were significant increases in metrics including public awareness of persistent cough as a lung cancer symptom; urgent GP referrals for suspected lung cancer; and lung cancers diagnosed. Most encouragingly, there was a 3.1 percentage point increase (P<0.001) in proportion of non-small cell lung cancer diagnosed at stage I and a 2.3 percentage point increase (P<0.001) in resections for patients seen during the national campaign, with no evidence these proportions changed during the control period (P=0.404, 0.425).CONCLUSIONS:
To our knowledge, the data are the first to suggest a shift in stage distribution following an awareness campaign for lung cancer. It is possible a sustained increase in resections may lead to improved long-term survival.
Texto completo:
1
Coleções:
01-internacional
Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
Tosse
/
Promoção da Saúde
/
Neoplasias Pulmonares
Tipo de estudo:
Diagnostic_studies
/
Evaluation_studies
Limite:
Female
/
Humans
/
Male
País/Região como assunto:
Europa
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Br J Cancer
Ano de publicação:
2015
Tipo de documento:
Article
País de afiliação:
Reino Unido