Prevalence of cancer alarm symptoms: A population-based cross-sectional study

Abstract

Objective. To estimate the prevalence of alarm symptoms for breast, colorectal, urinary tract, and lung cancer in the general population. Design. Cross-sectional questionnaire survey. Setting. The former County of Funen, Denmark, with 480 000 inhabitants. Participants. A total of 13 777 randomly selected persons aged 20 years and older. Main outcome measures. Prevalence estimates of having experienced cancer alarm symptoms during the past 12 months: a lump in the breast, blood in bowel movements, blood in urine, or coughing for more than six weeks. The number of alarm symptoms experienced within the past 12 months was also calculated. Results. With a response rate of 69%, 3.3% of responders (95% CI 2.9% to 3.7%) reported a lump in their breast, 5.7% (5.2% to 6.3%) reported blood in bowel movements, 2.2% (1.9% to 2.5%) reported blood in urine, and 6.5% (6.1% to 7.5%) reported coughing for more than six weeks within the past 12 months. Overall, 15.3% (95% confidence interval 14.3% to 16.3%) of the females and 12.7% (11.6% to 13.7%) of the males reported having experienced at least one cancer alarm symptom within the past 12 months. Conclusion. Alarm symptoms of breast, colorectal, urinary tract, and lung cancer are common in the general population and approximately 15% of the population have experienced at least one of these cancer alarm symptom within the past 12 months.

Key Words::

• Breast cancer
• colorectal cancer
• cross-sectional survey
• health surveys
• lung cancer
• signs and symptoms
• urinary tract cancer

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Lise Keller Stark for proofreading the manuscript, Susanne Døssing Berntsen for managing data and for financial support.

Contributors

BLH and HS had the original idea for the overall study and they designed it together with JK. The plan of analysis for this sub-study was developed by RPS in collaboration with HS, JK, JS, and DEJ, who all participated in the extraction of data and interpretation of results. RPS drafted the manuscript and conducted all statistical analyses under the supervision of HS, JK, JS, and DEJ. All authors contributed to the final version. RPS is the guarantor.

Funding

This study was funded by the Novo Nordisk Foundation. All authors are independent of funders.

Competing interests

None declared.

Ethical approval

According to the Scientific Ethics Committee for the County of Funen, the Biomedical Research Ethics Committee System Act does not apply to this project. The study was approved by the Danish Data Protection Agency.

Data

All authors, external and internal, had full access to all of the data (including statistical reports and tables) in the study and can take responsibility for the integrity of the data and the accuracy of the data analysis.

Data sharing

No additional data available.