Abstract B39: Family history of ovarian cancer and health care-seeking behavior: Does having a family history prompt women to seek health care professional advice?
Authors: Rim Sun Hee , Townsend Julie S. , Puckett Mary , Stewart Sherri L. 
Published: September 2020

Background: Few studies have examined the relationship between ovarian cancer (OC) family history (FH) and awareness of symptoms. Women with an FH may differ from those without an FH in their knowledge, awareness, attitudes, beliefs, and health care-seeking motivation with respect to potential OC signs/symptoms. We examined whether having an FH of OC prompted women to seek health care professional advice.

Methods: We analyzed data from 2016 FallStyles survey, conducted among women aged ≥18 years recruited from Growth from Knowledge KnowledgePanel®, a probability-based sample representative of the U.S. population (response rate 78.8%). For women reporting a FH of OC, we examined responses to a hypothetical health care-seeking question: “If you began experiencing any of the following medical symptoms and it was not normal for you, when would you contact a doctor or other health professional?” Only women who indicated they would not seek care from a doctor for all of the listed symptoms in the survey were excluded (n=28). Data were weighted to match the U.S. Current Population Survey proportions for age, race/ethnicity, education, and other demographic characteristics. Analyses were performed with SAS 9.3 and SAS-callable SUDAAN 11.

Results: Of the 1,759 respondents, most were non-Hispanic white (64.3%), married (58.5%), between the ages of 25 and 64 (68.0%), had at least a high school education (58.5%), and lived in a metropolitan area (84.8%). About 1.9% reported being of Ashkenazi Jewish descent. About 10.1% indicated having an FH of OC. Of these women, 30.1% also had a first degree relative with breast cancer. Women with an FH of OC were more often aware of signs/symptoms of ovarian and other gynecologic cancers, particularly symptoms of early satiety [29.7 (95% CI 21.9, 38.9) vs. 16.4 (95%CI 14.3, 18.8), p&lt;0.05], unexplained bloating [44.2 (95% CI 35.4, 53.4) vs. 29.9 (95%CI 27.2, 32.8), p&lt;0.05], and vaginal itching [19.0 (95% CI 12.5, 27.8) vs. 8.1 (95%CI 6.5, 10.0), p&lt;0.05], compared to women without an FH. Women with an FH of OC more often reported feeling “very or somewhat worried or concerned” about getting OC [35.5 (95% CI 26.8, 45.3) vs. 17.4 (95%CI 14.9, 20.1), p&lt;0.05] compared to women without an FH. There were no statistically significant differences in beliefs and attitudes about OC between women with vs, without an FH of OC. Women with an FH experiencing some gynecologic symptoms, like “unexplained vaginal bleeding” and “vaginal itching,” were more likely to seek care immediately (within 2 weeks or less). Overall there were no statistically significant differences in urgent health care-seeking behavior between women with an OC FH vs. without for gastrointestinal symptoms.

Conclusion: While women with FH appeared more aware of symptoms, this did not translate to prompt health care seeking, particularly for gastrointestinal symptoms in our dataset. Providers may want to stress the importance of timely care, as well as determine a specific surveillance plan for their patients with an OC FH.

Citation Format: Sun Hee Rim, Julie S. Townsend, Mary Puckett, Sherri L. Stewart. Family history of ovarian cancer and health care-seeking behavior: Does having a family history prompt women to seek health care professional advice? [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR Special Conference on Advances in Ovarian Cancer Research; 2019 Sep 13-16, 2019; Atlanta, GA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Clin Cancer Res 2020;26(13_Suppl):Abstract nr B39.