Defaulters among lung cancer patients in a suburban district in a developing country

Ng, Teck Han and How, Soon Hin and Kuan, Yeh Chunn and Abdul Rani, Mohammed Fauzi (2012) Defaulters among lung cancer patients in a suburban district in a developing country. Annals of thoracic medicine, 7 (1). pp. 12-15. ISSN 1998-3557 (o) 1817-1737 (p)

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Abstract

INTRODUCTION: This study was carried out to determine the prevalence, patient's characteristic and reasons for defaulting follow-up and treatment among patients with lung cancer. METHODS: Patients with histologically confirmed lung cancer were recruited. Patient's detailed demographic data, occupation, socioeconomic status, and educational level of both the patients and their children were recorded. Defaulters were classified as either intermittent or persistent defaulters. By using Chi-square test, defaulter status was compared with various demographic and disease characteristic factors. The reasons for default were determined. RESULTS: Ninety five patients were recruited. Among them, 81.1% patients were males; 66.3% were Malays. The mean age (SD) was 60 ± 10.5 years. About 46.3% of the patients had Eastern Cooperation Oncology Group (ECOG) functional status 0/1 and 96.8% of the patients presented with advanced stage (Stage 3b or 4). Overall, 20 patients (21.1%) were defaulters (35.0% intermittent defaulters; 65.0% persistent defaulters). Among the intermittent defaulters, 8 patients defaulted once and one patient defaulted 3 times. Among the 20 defaulters, only 2 (10%) patients turned up for the second follow-up appointment after telephone reminder. Two main reasons for default were ‘too ill to come’ (38.5.5%) and logistic difficulties (23.1%). No correlation was found between patient education, children education, income, ECOG status, stage of the disease, race, and gender with the defaulter rate.

Item Type:	Article (Journal)
Additional Information:	3204/23453
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Children education level, defaulter, follow-up, lung cancer, phone reminder
Subjects:	R Medicine > R Medicine (General)
Kulliyyahs/Centres/Divisions/Institutes (Can select more than one option. Press CONTROL button):	Kulliyyah of Medicine
Depositing User:	Mr iskhandar adnan
Date Deposited:	17 Apr 2012 10:12
Last Modified:	26 Jun 2013 22:00
URI:	http://irep.iium.edu.my/id/eprint/23453

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