British shame

Ingrid Müller is a chemist and medical journalist. She was editor-in-chief of for twelve years. Since March 2014 she has been working as a freelance journalist and author for, among others, Focus Gesundheit, the health portal ellviva.de, the publishing house living crossmedia and the health channel of rtv.de.

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If you have cancer symptoms, go to the doctor! But not all do that, for example the British. The reasons: shame and the fear of stealing the doctor's time. That leaves even the researchers at a loss

Cancer is serious business, it can cost a life quickly. Even if most types of cancer are not cases for the emergency doctor: the earlier a malignant tumor is discovered, the better the chances of recovery. Sometimes it is already too late when the first symptoms appear, for example in the case of pancreatic or lung cancer. The British are in the back seat in the fight against cancer. Now it came out: That could be due to the British mentality. Shame, embarrassment and the feeling of not wanting to waste their doctor's time deterred the British from seeing a doctor - even if they experienced clear symptoms of cancer. This is the conclusion of a study by King’s College and University College in London.

British die earlier

The study is part of a global study that looked at survival rates for lung, breast, kidney and ovarian cancer in six countries. The citizens of Canada, Sweden and Norway survived the longest, while Denmark and Great Britain had the lowest survival rates with England, Wales and Northern Ireland. This amazed the researchers all the more since all countries have comparably good cancer registries and access to the health system. For example, a UK lung cancer patient diagnosed between 2005 and 2007 had an average one-year survival rate of 30 percent compared to 44 percent in Sweden. The researchers therefore wanted to find out whether a country's cancer survival rates are influenced by the level of knowledge, attention and attitudes of the population.

Patients as time wasters

The researchers interviewed more than 19,000 males and females ages 50 and up via telephone interviews. Participating countries were Australia (approx. 4000 test persons), Canada (approx. 2000), Norway (approx. 2000), Sweden (approx. 2000) and Great Britain (almost 7000 participants).

People in different countries had different levels of barriers when reporting their symptoms to a doctor. The researchers say the differences are significant. Around 34 percent of the British did not want to steal their doctor's time - in Sweden it was only nine percent. The shame of going to the doctor with a possibly serious symptom was also mentioned most frequently by the British: 15 percent compared to 6 percent in Denmark. Even the researchers do not understand that embarrassment and the subjective assessment of being a waste of time for the doctor lead to inaction. "The British were real outsiders in this study," says Dr. Lindsay Forbes from King's College London.

Keep your composure!

The researchers identified the British mentality as a possible cause. Their attitude corresponds roughly to the winged phrase "Stiff Upper Lip", translated as: "Maintain your posture" or "keep your ears stiff". And that keeps people from going to the doctor. "We have to help people make the right decisions," said Forbes. And Prof. Jane Wardle from University College London says: “We have to understand better how people with potential cancer symptoms make the decision to see a doctor in the first place, and how they interact with the doctor”. This is the only way to break down the barriers.

"That gives you courage"

Citizens of different countries had different levels of information about the risk factors for cancer. Awareness that the risk of cancer increases with age varied between countries: only 13 percent believed this in Canada, 14 percent in the UK and 38 percent in Sweden. “We need to educate the population better about age-related cancer risk,” says Forbes.

When it came to attentiveness to cancer symptoms and opinions on chances of survival, the researchers found only small differences between countries. The British knew just as much about cancer symptoms as people in Australia, Canada or Scandinavia. Sara Hiom, Director of Cancer Research UK, says: "That is encouraging."

Source: Forbes, L. et al. ‘Differences in cancer awareness and beliefs between Australia, Canada, Denmark, Norway, Sweden and the UK (the International Cancer Benchmarking Partnership): do they contribute to differences in cancer survival?’ British Journal of Cancer, January 30, 2013

Tags:  elderly care hospital magazine