Patient Delay, Diagnosis Delay and Treatment Delay for Breast Cancer: Comparison of the Pattern between Patients in Public and Private Health Sectors

Background: The purpose of this study was to compare patient delay,diagnosis delay and treatment delay in breast cancer patients of selected public andprivate health centers inTehran, Iran.Methods: In this cross-sectional study, female patients with newly diagnosedbreast cancer in a public medical complex and a private breast clinic within oneyear were included. Patient delay was considered positive, if the interval betweenthe detection of the first symptom by the patient and the first visit to a health careprovider took longer than one month. Delay in diagnosis was defined as the periodof more than one week between the first medical visit for the symptoms and thediagnosis of breast cancer. Following the confirmed diagnosis of breastmalignancy, if the medical treatment was initiated later than one week, treatmentdelay had occurred. The potential reasons for patient, diagnosis and treatmentdelay according to the patients’ reportswere also recorded.Results: Overall, ۳۸۵ patients were included of whom ۵۲.۷% were recruitedfrom the public hospitals and ۴۷.۳% from a private clinic. The prevalence ofpatient delay, diagnosis delay and treatment delay were ۳۱.۷%, ۱۷.۹% and ۲۸.۳%,respectively. Patient delay was significantly more common among patients withlower socio-economic status and those recruited from the public hospitals. All thepatients with diagnosis delay were in the group recruited from the public hospitals.Conclusions: Gaps between women of different socio-economic levels of thesociety need to be addressed in order to decrease patient, diagnosis and treatmentdelay.

کلیدواژه ها:

Breast cancer ، patient delay ، diagnosis delay ، treatment delay ، social determinants of health