Health Psychology: Help-seeking for cancer symptoms among obese and overweight men

Popular stereotypes exist of men’s apparent poor health behaviours, lack of awareness of their bodies and reluctance to seek help following self-discovery of a health threat. However, more recently there has been a reinterpretation of how men interpret and respond to health threats that recognises the role of men’s interpretations of their masculinity and places men’s underuse of healthcare services in a context of women overusing healthcare services. However, despite recent evidence to suggest that men are not disengaged from their health the situation still remains that % of men are unlikely to promptly seek help for symptoms of cancer and therefore decrease their chance of early detection and may increase their chance of presenting with advanced disease. In order to develop interventions to promote prompt help-seeking and early detection among men we need to develop the knowledge base in this area. Compounding this issue is limited research base around the help-seeking behaviour of obese/overweight men. The proportion of men classified has gradually increased over the past 30 years to a position where approximately 50% of men in the UK are classified as obese or overweight. Furthermore there are regional variations with approximately 70% in the West Midlands classified as overweight/obese. Obese men have been shown to be at greater risk of developing certain male specific cancers and are more likely to delay seeking help for symptoms across a range of conditions.

The aims of this PhD are to (1) identify the triggers and barriers for help-seeking behaviour among men with symptoms of male specific cancer and (2) identify differences in these factors among obese/overweight and healthy weight men.