Characteristics of customary non‐attenders in general practice who are diagnosed with cancer: A cross‐sectional study in Denmark

Abstract

Objective This study aimed to explore individual and structural factors in patients with cancer and their potential association with customary non‐attendance in general practice. Materials and methods We conducted a population‐based cross‐sectional study of all patients aged 50–89 years who were diagnosed with an incident cancer in 2009–2013 in Denmark. We investigated associations between being a customary non‐attender (defined as having no consultations in general practice in the 19–36 months before diagnosis) and selected patient‐related factors (demography, socioeconomic status), health‐related factors (multimorbidity) and structural factors (urbanisation degree, list size of general practice and use of out‐of‐hours services) using logistic regression. Results A total of 123,943 cancer patients were included; 11,567 (9.3%) of these were non‐attenders. Non‐attendance was associated with being more than 70 years of age, being single, having short or long education and being financially affluent. Non‐attendance was rarely seen in cancer patients with (multi)morbidity, in individuals living in an area with 2,000–99,999 inhabitants and in individuals having contact with the out‐of‐hours services. Conclusion Specific groups of cancer patients were more often customary non‐attenders in general practice. General practice may need to reach out more directly to these patients to ensure more timely cancer diagnosis.

Preventing non-attendance in outpatient appointments: predictive model development, validation, and clinical assessment

“…Another limitation was the unavailability of data with potential influence on the non-attendance rate, such as the economic status [27], [28], education level [29], [30], or certain medical conditions [19], [31]. As discussed previously, the lack of social information is common in the development of predictive algorithms elsewhere.…”

Association of Smoking, Comorbidity, Clinical Stage, and Treatment Intent With Socioeconomic Differences in Survival After Oropharyngeal Squamous Cell Carcinoma in Denmark

“…4 Socioeconomic position (SEP) is associated with health during the entire course of life and is shaped by differences in multiple contextual and individual factors (eg, health literacy, lifestyle, capability, use of the health care system, and communication with health care professionals). [4][5][6][7][8] Socioeconomic differences in survival after cancer and, specifically, HNSCC have been suggested to be associated with factors related to disease stage at diagnosis, other disease characteristics, health behaviors, presence of other chronic conditions, and treatment. [9][10][11] Particularly for HNSCC, differences in etiology may play an important role.…”