Barriers to Colorectal Cancer Screening: A Comparison of Reports From Primary Care Physicians & Average-Risk Adults
Background:
Barriers to colorectal cancer (CRC) screening are not well understood.
Objectives:
We sought to compare barriers to CRC screening reported by primary care physicians (PCPs)
and by average-risk adults, and to examine characteristics of average-risk adults who
identified lack of provider recommendation as a major barrier to CRC screening.
Research Design:
This was a comparative study using data from the 1999-2000 Survey of Colorectal Cancer
Screening Practices and the 2000 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS).
Subjects:
We recruited nationally representative samples of PCPs (n = 1235) from the SCCSP and
average-risk adults (n = 6497) from the NHIS.
Measures:
We measured barriers to CRC screening identified by PCPs and average-risk adults who were
not current with screening.
Results:
Both PCPs and average-risk adults identified lack of patient awareness and physician
recommendation as key barriers to obtaining CRC screening. PCPs also frequently cited
patient embarrassment/anxiety about testing and test cost/lack of insurance coverage, but
few adults identified these as major barriers. Of adults not current with testing, those
who had visited a doctor in the past year or had health insurance were more likely to
report lack of physician recommendation as the main reason they were not up-to-date
compared with their counterparts with no doctor visit or health insurance. Only 10% of
adults not current with testing and who had a doctor visit in the past year reported
receiving a screening recommendation.
Conclusions:
A need exists for continued efforts to educate the public about CRC and the important role
of screening in preventing this disease. Practice-based strategies to systematically
prompt health care providers to discuss CRC screening with eligible patients also are
required.
Reference:
Klabunde CN, Vernon SW, Nadel MR, Breen N, Seeff LC, Brown ML.
Barriers to colorectal cancer screening: a comparison of reports from primary care physicians and average-risk adults.
Med Care 2005 Sep;43(9):939-44.
[View Abstract]
<< Previous |
Next >>
|