Abstract:
The present study was a correlational descriptive research which aimed at investigating the relationships between perceived severity of bladder cancer, knowledge of bladder cancer, fear caused by abnormal symptoms of bladder cancer, and social support and time to definite diagnosis in bladder cancer patients. The sample consisted of 90 bladder cancer patients at every stage of the disease, both males and females, who sought treatment at the urology outpatient and inpatient departments of Siriraj Hospital. Data were collected by means of interview between June and December, 2012 and were analyzed in terms of percentage, mean, standard deviation, median, and Spearmans Rank Correlation. The study findings revealed that most of the patients (85.6%) were male, with the mean age of 63.1 years (SD=9.32). Close to two-thirds (60.9%) had low grade transitional cell carcinoma, while 39.1% had high grade transitional cell carcinoma. Time to definite diagnosis with urologists ranged from one day to 1,460 days, with the median of 60 days. Most of the patients (85.6%) had a moderate level of perceived severity of the disease, and 87.8% and 83.3% had knowledge of risk factors of bladder cancer and abnormal symptoms of bladder cancer at the lowest level, respectively. Moreover, 36.7% of the patients had a moderate fear of abnormal symptoms of bladder cancer, 86.7% had the highest level of social support, and perceived severity of bladder cancer was associated with time to definite diagnosis in bladder cancer patients with statistical significance (r=-0.486,p<0.01).Finally, knowledge of bladder cancer patients was negatively related to time to definite diagnosis with statistical significance (r=-0.423, p<0.01), but fear of abnormal symptoms of bladder cancer and social support were not related to time to definite diagnosis. Based on the study findings, it is recommended that nurses and healthcare personnel should widely disseminate knowledge and advice on bladder cancer and its severity to encourage shorter time to definite diagnosis and treatment.