PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Mette B Larsen
AU  - Rikke P Hansen
AU  - Frede Olesen
AU  - Peter Vedsted
TI  - Patients&#039; confidence in their GP before and after being diagnosed with cancer
AID  - 10.3399/bjgp11X572409
DP  - 2011 May 01
TA  - British Journal of General Practice
PG  - e215--e222
VI  - 61
IP  - 586
4099  - http://bjgp.org/content/61/586/e215.short
4100  - http://bjgp.org/content/61/586/e215.full
SO  - Br J Gen Pract2011 May 01; 61
AB  - Background General practice plays an important role in the cancer care pathway. The initial diagnostic phase may be crucial for the relationship between the patient and the GP.Aim The aim was to describe whether patients&#039; confidence in their GP changed after a cancer diagnosis, and analyse whether the change in confidence was associated with doctor delay.Design and setting Population-based cohort study with 1892 questionnaires sent to patients and their GPs in general practices in the former Aarhus County, Denmark.Method Information on patients&#039; confidence in their GP was obtained from the patient questionnaire. Information on doctor delay was obtained from the GPs and defined as a period of 14 days or more from the date of first symptom presentation to the GP until cancer-specific investigation was initiated.Results Before the cancer diagnosis, 88.4% of the patients had confidence in their GP, which decreased to 80.0% after the diagnosis (P&amp;lt;0.001); 15.8% of the patients who experienced no doctor delay reported a decrease in confidence after the cancer diagnosis, compared with 29.1% of the patients with a doctor delay (P&amp;lt;0.001). Patients presenting with alarm symptoms and experiencing doctor delay were 3.8 times more likely to lose confidence compared with those presenting with alarm symptoms who experienced no doctor delay (P = 0.048).Conclusion The majority of the patients had high levels of confidence in their GP before, as well as after, the cancer diagnosis. Nevertheless, a substantial amount had low confidence in the GP, especially when experiencing doctor delay in the initial phase of the pathway.