LUSH (LUng Symptom awareness and Health)
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Empowering high risk, harder to reach groups to engage with lung cancer awareness and timely symptom presentation
IRAS ID
211917
Contact name
Kate Brain
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Cardiff University
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 3 months, days
Research summary
In the UK lung cancer survival is poor, particularly in poorer communities. One reason is that people may put off going to their doctor with a symptom. This means they are more likely to be diagnosed with lung cancer at a late stage. People who are at high risk of lung cancer - smokers, living in poorer communities, who have existing lung disease - are more likely to put off going to their doctor with a symptom. Therefore, we need to think of better ways to increase lung cancer awareness in high risk groups, and encourage them to go to their doctor quickly with symptoms. We will interview about 40 people who live in poorer areas of South Wales, Liverpool and North-east Scotland. We will ask GPs to help us find people to interview who are over the age of 40, are current or ex-smokers, and have serious lung disease. The interviews will involve asking questions about their perceptions and beliefs about lung cancer symptoms. We will then hold four focus groups to find out what people think about a community based lung cancer intervention: if it is something they could see fitting in with their community, where the intervention could take place, and whether they think people would go to it. Two groups will be with members of the public over age 40, who are current or ex-smokers and who live in poorer communities. The other two groups will be with healthcare professionals and community workers in these areas. The results will be used to develop a community group based intervention aimed at increasing lung symptom awareness and encouraging people to go to their doctor early if they have a symptom.
REC name
South Central - Hampshire A Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
16/SC/0589
Date of REC Opinion
21 Nov 2016
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion