Background. Cancer-related health behaviours may be affected by barriers to healthcare seeking and beliefs
about cancer. The aim was to assess anticipated barriers to healthcare seeking and beliefs about cancer in a
sample of the Danish population and to assess the association with socio-economic position.
Methods. A population-based telephone interview with 3000 randomly sampled persons aged 30 years or
older was performed using the Awareness and Beliefs about Cancer measure from 31 May to 4 July 2011. The
Awareness and Beliefs about Cancer measure includes statements about four anticipated barriers to healthcare
seeking and three positively and three negatively framed beliefs about cancer. For all persons, register-based
information on socio-economic position was obtained through Statistics Denmark.
Results. Two anticipated barriers, worry aboutwhat the doctormight find andworry aboutwasting the doctor's
time, were present among 27% and 15% of the respondents, respectively. Overall, a high proportion of respondents
concurred with positive beliefs about cancer; fewer concurredwith negative beliefs. Having a low educational level
and a low household income were strongly associated with having negative beliefs about cancer.
Conclusion. The fact that worry about what the doctormight find and worry about wasting the doctor's time
were commonly reported barriers call for initiatives in general practice. The association between low educational
level and low household income and negative beliefs about cancer might to some degree explain the negative
socio-economic gradient in cancer outcome.