People in the UK are more likely to avoid visiting the doctor through embarrassment or fear of wasting the doctor’s time than people in other countries, researchers say today.
Researchers explained the problem as the British "stiff upper lip".
Researchers from King’s College London and University College London, UK, who made the discovery, warn that it may prevent the early treatment of cancer. Dr Lindsay Forbes and colleagues surveyed 19,079 adults over the age of 50 in Australia, Canada, Denmark, Norway, Sweden and the UK.
While there was little difference in cancer symptom awareness and beliefs about cancer outcomes, there were significant differences in the barriers to seeking medical attention.
Fear of wasting the doctor’s time was highest in the UK (34% of respondents) and least common in Sweden (9%). Embarrassment was also highest in the UK (15%) and lowest in Denmark (6%).
Details are published today (30 January) in the British Journal of Cancer. The authors believe these results may partly explain the different cancer survival rates in the UK and other similarly-wealthy countries.
"The UK stood out in this study," said Dr Forbes. "The traditional British ‘stiff upper lip’ could be preventing people from seeing their doctor. We need to support people to make the right decisions about their health and increase awareness of the age-related risk."
Sara Hiom of Cancer Research UK added that her charity and others "are working hard to understand and address these potential barriers to early presentation and encourage people to tell their doctor if they have noticed something different about their body. More work also needs to be done to tackle the poor awareness that cancer risk increases with age."
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 30 January 2013
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