Women's purchasing behaviour may help identify ovarian cancer
The presenting symptoms of ovarian cancer are often vague, women typically present late to their primary care physician. This study is to look at the purchasing behaviour of women prior to presentation to determine whether a pattern of purchase might be an early warning of cancer.
Data from loyalty cards will be collected looking for purchases of non-pharmacy painkillers or indigestion treatment. The purchases of women prior to diagnosis of ovarian cancer will be compared with a similar size control group of women without a cancer diagnosis.
The advantage of this study is that the data is already available; purchasing information is collected to assist in market research by the loyalty card issuers. 500 women with cards and without cancer are being recruited to assist in the study. The hypothesis is that the information will enable earlier diagnosis and hence improve survival outcomes for this often-lethal disease.
No comments:
Post a Comment