EconPapers    
Economics at your fingertips  
 

Making sense of bodily sensations: Do shared cancer narratives influence symptom appraisal?

Sara Macdonald, Elaine Conway, Annemieke Bikker, Susan Browne, Kathryn Robb, Christine Campbell, Robert JC. Steele, David Weller and Una Macleod

Social Science & Medicine, 2019, vol. 223, issue C, 31-39

Abstract: Though new or altered bodily sensations are a common occurrence they rarely transition to biomedically defined symptoms. When they do, sensations are subject to an appraisal process that can culminate in help-seeking. The transition has particular relevance for cancer diagnoses. Studies of 'symptom appraisal' in cancer patients typically conclude that failure to regard sensations as serious or 'symptom misattribution' results in lengthier help-seeking intervals. Though multiple influences on appraisal processes are acknowledged, including the socio-cultural context, detailed description and analyses of how socio-cultural factors shape appraisal is lacking. In this paper we explore one substantial component of the sociocultural context, namely, publicly recognised shared cancer narratives, and their impact on appraisal. We undertook a secondary analysis of 24 interviews with Scottish colorectal cancer patients originally completed in 2006–2007. Our analysis showed that fear, death and severity dominated cancer narratives and were frequently restated throughout interviews. Yet, early bodily changes were often mild and vague, were commonly experienced in the context of 'feeling well' and failed to match preconceived ideas of what cancer 'feels like'. Moreover, few perceived themselves to be 'at risk' of cancer and diagnoses were characterised as 'shocking' events. Participants engaged in self-monitoring strategies and severe or painful changes prompted help-seeking. Far from misattributing symptoms, responses to bodily changes were sensible and measured; responses are particularly apt in relation to current policy rhetoric, which urges measured use of services. Our findings have resonance across healthcare settings as patients are required to negotiate a narrow and challenging space when making decisions to seek help. There is a pressing need for a more realistic approach to symptom appraisal in order to reduce help-seeking intervals. Future awareness campaigns should emphasise the importance of vague/minor bodily changes although this will necessitate discussions with health professionals on referral thresholds to achieve earlier detection.

Keywords: United Kingdom; Bodily sensations; Cancer narratives; Symptom appraisal; Help-seeking; Colorectal cancer (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953618307172
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:socmed:v:223:y:2019:i:c:p:31-39

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/supportfaq.cws_home/regional
http://www.elsevier. ... _01_ooc_1&version=01

DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2018.12.034

Access Statistics for this article

Social Science & Medicine is currently edited by Ichiro (I.) Kawachi and S.V. (S.V.) Subramanian

More articles in Social Science & Medicine from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().

 
Page updated 2025-03-19
Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:223:y:2019:i:c:p:31-39