Attitudinal Barriers to Cancer Pain Management in the Icelandic Population

The purpose of this study was to evaluate attitudinal barriers to cancer pain management in a random sample of 1,284 adults drawn from a national registry. Data were collected with a postal survey, and 599 (46.6%) surveys were completed. Barriers were evaluated with the Icelandic Barriers Questionnaire-II. The mean (SD) age of respondents was 45.28 (17.14) years, and 55.8% were women. Their mean (SD) length of education was 13.81 (4.27) years. Approximately half (55.6%) had personal experience of cancer; of those, 95.7% had a relative or a close friend so diagnosed, and in addition, 33 (10%) had been diagnosed themselves. The mean (SD) Icelandic Barriers Questionnaire-II score was 2.16 (0.77) on a scale of 0 to 5, with higher scores indicating stronger attitudinal barriers. Education was inversely related to barriers, and age was inversely related to 1 specific barrier (fatalistic beliefs). Those who had personal experience of cancer had lower barriers than those who did not. There seem to be substantial attitudinal barriers to cancer pain management among the general population of Iceland, and stronger than previously described in the United States. This points to the importance of addressing barriers among lay people because these barriers may interfere with good pain management practices.