Perceived barriers to seeking cancer care in the Gaza Strip: a cross-sectional study

Elshami, Mohamedraed; Bottcher, Bettina; Alkhatib, Mohammed; Ismail, Iyad; Abu-Nemer, Khitam; Hana, Mustafa; Qandeel, Ahmed; Abdelwahed, Ahmed; Yazji, Hamza; Abuamro, Hisham; Matar, Ghadeer; Alsahhar, Ahmed; Abolamzi, Ahmed; Baraka, Obay; Elblbessy, Mahmood; Samra, Tahani; Alshorbassi, Nabeela; Elshami, Alaa

doi:10.1186/s12913-020-06044-1

BMC Health Services Research

Table 4 The association of overall recall/recognition scores for cancer symptoms with reporting barriers to seek medical advice for cancer

From: Perceived barriers to seeking cancer care in the Gaza Strip: a cross-sectional study

Type of barrier	Barrier	Overall recall score				Overall recognition score
Type of barrier	Barrier	Unadjusted OR (95% CI)	p-value	^aAdjusted OR (95% CI)	p-value	Unadjusted OR (95% CI)	p-value	^aAdjusted OR (95% CI)	p-value
Emotional	Embarrassment (n= 2769)	0.89 (0.82–0.97)	0.008	0.90 (0.82–0.97)	0.010	1.01 (0.97–1.06)	0.53	1.02 (0.98–1.06)	0.39
	Feeling scared (n= 2753)	1.06 (0.98–1.15)	0.16	1.05 (0.97–1.14)	0.26	0.97 (0.93–1.01)	0.19	0.98 (0.93–1.02)	0.26
	Wouldn’t feel confident talking about symptom with doctor (n= 2652)	0.98 (0.90–1.07)	0.71	0.99 (0.92–1.09)	0.99	0.96 (0.92–1.00)	0.08	0.98 (0.94–1.02)	0.37
	Feeling worried about what a doctor might find (n= 2657)	1.08 (0.99–1.17)	0.08	1.07 (0.98–1.17)	0.12	0.98 (0.94–1.03)	0.42	0.99 (0.95–1.04)	0.90
Service	Feeling worried about wasting doctor’s time (n= 2673)	0.88 (0.79–0.97)	0.013	0.89 (0.80–0.98)	0.024	0.97 (0.92–1.03)	0.31	0.98 (0.93–1.03)	0.36
	Difficulty talking to doctor (n= 2647)	0.90 (0.81–0.99)	0.03	0.91 (0.82–1.01)	0.07	1.01 (0.96–1.06)	0.79	0.99 (0.95–1.05)	0.93
	Difficulty making an appointment with the doctor (n= 2667)	0.90 (0.83–0.99)	0.027	0.92 (0.84–1.01)	0.07	1.02 (0.98–1.07)	0.38	1.04 (0.99–1.09)	0.14
Practical	Busy to go to the doctor (n= 2685)	0.92 (0.84–1.00)	0.06	0.93 (0.86–1.02)	0.13	1.01 (0.97–1.06)	0.62	1.03 (0.98–1.08)	0.23
	Having other things to do (n= 2655)	0.93 (0.85–1.02)	0.12	0.94 (0.86–1.02)	0.15	1.03 (0.98–1.08)	0.22	1.04 (0.99–1.08)	0.14
	Difficulty arranging transports to the doctor (n= 2676)	0.92 (0.84–1.00)	0.06	0.91 (0.83–0.99)	0.034	1.02 (0.98–1.07)	0.31	1.02 (0.98–1.07)	0.35

n number of participants tested, OR odds ratio, CI confidence interval
Notes
^aAdjusted for age and gender.
To overcome the non-linear relationships, the ‘I do not know’ category of each barrier was dropped for easier interpretation
p-values in bold are less than 0.05

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