Background: Cancer is one of the leading causes of death worldwide, and in order to prevent it, it is vital to understand cancer patients' health-seeking behavior that contributes to patient delays in receiving cancer treatment globally; however, no similar studies have been conducted in India. Therefore, this study made an effort to know health-seeking behavior among delayed cancer patients receiving treatment at a tertiary care hospital, Varanasi.

Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted at the Department of Surgical Oncology OPD, Sir Sunder Lal Hospital, IMS, BHU, Varanasi. Randomly selected 440 registered patients were interviewed with the help of semi-structured questionnaire. Binary logistic regression analysis and 2-test were used in this study.

Results: Out of total 440 patients included in this study, 207 (47.05%) were males and 233 (52.95%) were females. The majority (59.32%) of patients were more than 45 years of age group. Most (80%) of the patients had delay in cancer treatment of more than 60 days from onset of symptoms. Only 29.55% of patients were aware of any symptoms of Cancer. Those patients who were doing self-medication (P=0.03) and did not attend any cancer screening program (P=0.04) showed a statistically significant association with delayed initiation of treatment. Patients referred from another centre (P = 0.03) also show a significant association with delayed treatment initiation. Cancer patients who visited the screening program (AOR= 0.22, P=0.003) were significantly associated with a lower likelihood of delayed treatment initiation.

Conclusion: The study showed that 80% of patients were delayed in seeking treatment for Cancer and highly influenced by low awareness, self-medication and visiting multiple health centres for diagnosis and treatment. Therefore, there is a strong need to address the reasons for the delay in seeking treatment.

Keywords: Barriers; cancer; delay; health-seeking behavior.

Copyright: © 2024 Indian Journal of Community Medicine.

背景： 癌症是全球主要的致死原因之一，为了预防癌症，了解导致全球癌症患者治疗延迟的行为模式至关重要；然而，在印度还没有类似的研究进行。因此，本研究旨在了解在瓦拉纳西三级医院接受治疗的延误患者中的健康求医行为。

方法： 本研究在Varanasi Sir Sunder Lal Hospital, IMS, BHU外科肿瘤学门诊部开展了一项横断面调查。通过半结构化问卷对440名随机选择的注册患者进行了访谈。该研究使用了二元逻辑回归分析和卡方检验。

结果： 本研究中，共有440名参与者，其中207人（47.05%）为男性，233人（52.95%）为女性。大多数患者（59.32%）年龄超过45岁。80%的患者从出现症状到接受癌症治疗的时间超过了60天。只有29.55%的患者了解癌症的症状。自我用药(P=0.03)和未参加任何癌症筛查项目(P=0.04)与延迟开始治疗存在显著相关性。从其他医疗机构转诊而来的病人(P = 0.03)也显示了显著的治疗延迟关联。参加过筛查项目的癌症患者(AOR=0.22, P=0.003)与降低治疗延误的发生率有关联。

结论： 研究表明，80%的患者在寻求癌症治疗方面存在延迟，并且这种延迟很大程度上是由低认知水平、自我用药以及为诊断和治疗就诊于多个医疗中心所导致。因此，解决影响患者求医行为的原因是至关重要的。

关键词： 障碍；癌症；延误；健康求医行为。