TY - JOUR
T1 - Psychiatric disorders and the cancer diagnostic process in general practice
T2 - a combined questionnaire and register study exploring the patients’ experiences in Denmark
AU - Virgilsen, Line Flytkjær
AU - Jensen, Henry
AU - Falborg, Alina Zalounina
AU - Prior, Anders
AU - Pedersen, Anette Fischer
AU - Vedsted, Peter
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
PY - 2024
Y1 - 2024
N2 - Objective: Patients with psychiatric disorders are at risk of experiencing suboptimal cancer diagnostics and treatment. This study investigates how this patient group perceives the cancer diagnostic process in general practice. Design: Cross-sectional study using questionnaire and register data. Setting: General practice in Denmark. Subjects: Patients diagnosed with cancer in late 2016 completed a questionnaire about their experiences with their general practitioner (GP) in the cancer diagnostic process (n = 3411). Information on pre-existing psychiatric disorders was obtained from register data on psychiatric hospital contacts and primary care treated psychiatric disorders through psychotropic medications. Logistic regression was used to analyse the association between psychiatric disorders and the patients’ experiences. Main outcome measures: Patients’ experiences, including cancer worry, feeling being taken seriously, and the perceived time between booking an appointment and the first GP consultation. Included survey items on the patients’ experiences Results: A total of 13% of patients had an indication of a psychiatric disorder. This group more often perceived the time interval as too short between the first booking of a consultation and the first GP consultation. Patients with primary care treated psychiatric disorders were more likely to worry about cancer at the first presentation and to share this concern with their GP compared with patients without psychiatric disorders. We observed no statistically significant association between patients with psychiatric disorders and perceiving the waiting time to referral from general practice, being taken seriously, trust in the GP’s abilities, and the patients’ knowledge of the process following the GP referral. Conclusion: The patients’ experiences with the cancer diagnostic process in general practice did not vary largely between patients with and without psychiatric disorders. Worrying about cancer may be a particular concern for patients with primary care treated psychiatric disorders.
AB - Objective: Patients with psychiatric disorders are at risk of experiencing suboptimal cancer diagnostics and treatment. This study investigates how this patient group perceives the cancer diagnostic process in general practice. Design: Cross-sectional study using questionnaire and register data. Setting: General practice in Denmark. Subjects: Patients diagnosed with cancer in late 2016 completed a questionnaire about their experiences with their general practitioner (GP) in the cancer diagnostic process (n = 3411). Information on pre-existing psychiatric disorders was obtained from register data on psychiatric hospital contacts and primary care treated psychiatric disorders through psychotropic medications. Logistic regression was used to analyse the association between psychiatric disorders and the patients’ experiences. Main outcome measures: Patients’ experiences, including cancer worry, feeling being taken seriously, and the perceived time between booking an appointment and the first GP consultation. Included survey items on the patients’ experiences Results: A total of 13% of patients had an indication of a psychiatric disorder. This group more often perceived the time interval as too short between the first booking of a consultation and the first GP consultation. Patients with primary care treated psychiatric disorders were more likely to worry about cancer at the first presentation and to share this concern with their GP compared with patients without psychiatric disorders. We observed no statistically significant association between patients with psychiatric disorders and perceiving the waiting time to referral from general practice, being taken seriously, trust in the GP’s abilities, and the patients’ knowledge of the process following the GP referral. Conclusion: The patients’ experiences with the cancer diagnostic process in general practice did not vary largely between patients with and without psychiatric disorders. Worrying about cancer may be a particular concern for patients with primary care treated psychiatric disorders.
KW - (MeSH): Denmark
KW - early detection of cancer
KW - general practice
KW - mental disorders
KW - neoplasms
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85180909881&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/02813432.2023.2296944
DO - 10.1080/02813432.2023.2296944
M3 - Journal article
C2 - 38149909
AN - SCOPUS:85180909881
SN - 0281-3432
VL - 42
SP - 156
EP - 169
JO - Scandinavian Journal of Primary Health Care
JF - Scandinavian Journal of Primary Health Care
IS - 1
ER -