DELAY IN DIAGNOSIS OF CHILDREN WITH CANCER: A Retrospective Study of 315 Children

Figures & data

The Characteristics of the ‘Overall-Delay’ (Lag Time), Parent's Delay, and Doctor's Delay (Results in Weeks)

	Doctor's delay	Parent's delay	Overall delay
Mean	11.17	4.42	15.75
SD	21.98	12.04	26.97
Mode	2.0	1.0	4.0
Range	0–206	0–130	0–208
Median	4.0	1.0	7.0

Relationship between Religion and Lag Time

		Lag time (weeks)
Religion	Number	0–3	3.1–7	7.1–15	15
Jewish	174	34 (19.5%)	55 (31.6%)	36 (20.7%)	49 (28.2%)
Non-Jewish	141	46 (32.6%)	27 (19.1%)	39 (27.7%)	29 (20.6%)
Total	315	80 (25.4%)	82 (26%)	75 (23.8%)	78 (24.8%)

χ² = 13.98, p-value < 0.01.

Relationship between Specific Religion Groups and Lag Time

Religion	N	SD	Median	Mean
Jews	174	31.2244	6.5000	17.6293
Moslems	82	21.7876	6.0000	13.7134
Christians	24	25.6203	6.2500	15.3542
Druses	34	11.7075	9.0000	11.7500
Total	315	26.9712	7.0000	15.7540

1 Mean lag times according to religion.

Relationship between Age of Mother and Lag Time

Mother's age (years)	Mean (w)	Median (w)	SD
30>	7.7188	4.0000	11.0135
30–39	16.2292	6.0000	29.9574
40<	18.3333	9.0000	27.2258

p <. 01.

Relation between Age of Child and Lag Time

		Lag time (weeks)
Age of child (years)	Number	0–3	3.1–7	7.1–15	15
0–2	58	28 (48.3%)	15 (25.9%)	7 (12.1%)	8 (13.8%)
2–6	71	25 (35.2%)	18 (25.4%)	14 (19.7%)	14 (19.7%)
6–12	79	12 (15.2%)	25 (31.6%)	18 (22.8%)	24 (30.4%)
> 12	107	15 (14%)	24 (22.4%)	36 (33.6%)	32 (29.9%)
Total	315	80 (25.4%)	82 (26%)	75 (23.8%)	78 (24.8%)

χ² = 38.782.

p <. 01.

Relation between the Age of the Child, Lag Time, Parent's Delay, and Doctor's Delay

Age of the child at diagnosis(years)	Parent's delay	Dr's delay	Overall delay
	56	58	58	N
	9.44615	8.33235	10.45303	Std. deviation
	1.0000	2.0000	3.7500	Median
0–2	2.6696	5.3621	7.3793	Mean
	70	71	71	N
	5.35983	19.92734	20.60080	Std. deviation
	1.0000	2.0000	4.0000	Median
2.1–6	2.5214	9.7606	12.0845	Mean
	79	79	79	N
	18.13549	20.60616	29.77935	Std. deviation
	1.0000	5.0000	8.5000	Median
6.1–12	6.0886	13.4304	18.3101	Mean
	106	106	107	N
	10.55659	28.15235	32.93809	Std. deviation
12.0+	2.0000	4.0000	11.5000	Median
	5.3585	13.6368	20.8411	Mean

2 Corelation between age of child and lag time.

Relation between Type of Physician First Approached and Lag Time

The specialty of the doctor	Mean	Median	Std deviation
GP/family doctor	17.4909	8.0000	27.47690
Pediatricians	13.1815	5.0000	27.74846
Other specialists	17.0000	11.5000	18.47647
Total	15.7540	7.0000	26.97116

3 Mean parent's delay, doctor's delay, and lag time according to the specialty of the first doctor.

Relation between Type of Tumor and Lag Time (Weeks)

Type of tumor	Number	Mean	Median	Range
Lymphomas	79	10.1013	5.0000	1–53
Brain and spine	72	21.4097	7.5000	1–208
Sympathetic system	27	16.0000	6.0000	0–208
Retinoblastoma	7	12.6429	3.0000	0.5–52
Kidney	19	6.7368	2.5000	0.5–52
Bone	39	17.6538	11.0000	1–104
Soft tissue sarcomas	30	20.7333	9.5000	0–208
Gonads and germ cells	14	9.5000	5.7500	0.5–31
Epithelial tumors	15	22.9000	13.0000	4–128
Histiocytosis	13	14.4231	6.0000	1–68
Total	315	15.7540	7.0000	0–208

Table

Lag time, weeks	Observed N (Frequency)	Expected N (Frequency)	Residual
0–3	80	78.8	1.3
3.1–7	82	78.8	3.3
7.1–15	75	78.8	−3.8
15.1+	78	78.8	−.8
Total	315

Table

	Test Statistics:	Statistics	Lag time, weeks
		Chi-Square (a, b)	.340
		df	3
		Sig.	.952