TY - JOUR
T1 - Appraisal of emerging symptoms of colorectal cancer
T2 - Associations with dispositional, demographic, and tumor characteristics
AU - Ristvedt, Stephen L.
AU - Pruitt, Sandi L.
AU - Trinkaus, Kathryn M.
N1 - Funding Information:
Acknowledgments This research was supported in part by National Institute of Health grant CA102177 and the Barnes-Jewish Hospital Foundation (SLR), and a postdoctoral fellowship from the Alvin J. Siteman Cancer Center Prevention and Control Program (SLP) and career development award from the National Center for Research Resources Washington University-ICTS (KL2 RR024994) (SLP). The authors wish to acknowledge the support of the Biostatistics Core, Siteman Comprehensive Cancer Center and NCI Cancer Center Support Grant P30 CA091842.
PY - 2014/8
Y1 - 2014/8
N2 - The time it takes for individuals to realize that their emerging colorectal cancer (CRC) symptoms are serious is often an impediment to expeditious help-seeking. Tailored educational efforts to hasten symptom appraisal time would benefit from knowledge of the characteristics of individuals who tend to neglect their symptoms as well as the nature of symptoms that are most often neglected. In a sample of 112 CRC patients, we investigated associations between duration of symptom appraisal and: (1) trait anxiety, and (2) tumor location, which affects symptomatology. Symptom appraisal duration was associated with a sex-by-anxiety interaction (p = 0.007). The longest times (in weeks) were among high anxiety females (Mdn = 26.0) and low anxiety males (Mdn = 17.0), with shorter times among low anxiety females (Mdn = 9.0) and high anxiety males (Mdn = 2.0). Symptom appraisal times were also longer for patients with distal (vs. proximal) tumors (p = 0.036).
AB - The time it takes for individuals to realize that their emerging colorectal cancer (CRC) symptoms are serious is often an impediment to expeditious help-seeking. Tailored educational efforts to hasten symptom appraisal time would benefit from knowledge of the characteristics of individuals who tend to neglect their symptoms as well as the nature of symptoms that are most often neglected. In a sample of 112 CRC patients, we investigated associations between duration of symptom appraisal and: (1) trait anxiety, and (2) tumor location, which affects symptomatology. Symptom appraisal duration was associated with a sex-by-anxiety interaction (p = 0.007). The longest times (in weeks) were among high anxiety females (Mdn = 26.0) and low anxiety males (Mdn = 17.0), with shorter times among low anxiety females (Mdn = 9.0) and high anxiety males (Mdn = 2.0). Symptom appraisal times were also longer for patients with distal (vs. proximal) tumors (p = 0.036).
KW - Colorectal cancer
KW - Common-sense model
KW - Sex differences
KW - Symptom appraisal
KW - Trait anxiety
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84905091208&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s10865-013-9519-4
DO - 10.1007/s10865-013-9519-4
M3 - Article
C2 - 23712574
AN - SCOPUS:84905091208
SN - 0160-7715
VL - 37
SP - 698
EP - 708
JO - Journal of Behavioral Medicine
JF - Journal of Behavioral Medicine
IS - 4
ER -