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Older Adults Not Being Given Recommended Colorectal
Screening
Doctors don't recommend colorectal screening enough,
report says
By David Crosson, Contributing Writer
Health Behavior News Service
Oct. 12, 2005 - Since 1996, federal health
officials have recommended that people 50 years and older be screened
for colorectal cancer with a fecal occult blood test. However, a new
analysis of data shows that only 17.2 percent actually received such
screening in the previous year.
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The study of 12,477 men and women, by Steven S.
Coughlin, Ph.D., and Trevor Thompson of the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention, also shows that only 33.9 percent of those 50 and older
were evaluated for colorectal cancer during the previous 10 years with
either sigmoidoscopy or colonoscopy, the most common screening
procedures after the fecal occult blood test (FOBT).
Of those who did not have an FOBT in the previous
year, 22.9 percent said they were not tested primarily because no doctor
ordered the procedure. Similarly, the study reveals that 21.6 percent of
those who did not have a sigmoidoscopy or colonoscopy in the past 10
years said they had not undergone such procedures primarily because
physicians had not ordered them.
Coughlin said the study in the latest issue of
Health Promotion Practice underscores the importance of doctors
recommending colorectal cancer screening.
The risks posed by colorectal cancer increase
sharply from age 50, and the American Cancer Society and others
recommend several screening options: annual FOBTs or sigmoidoscopies
every five years or both and colonoscopies every 10 years or as required
by FOBT results.
The FOBT is a simple, inexpensive procedure that
takes seconds to perform in an outpatient setting.
Colorectal cancer is the third most common type of
cancer in the United States and the second leading cause of cancer death
after lung cancer. More than 57,000 Americans die each year of the
disease, and early detection can reduce the diseases death toll.
A host of factors that may enable or impede the use
of screening procedures are assessed by the study. The analysis
associates older age and shorter duration of residency in the United
States with not having a physician recommendation for colorectal cancer
screening. It also says that having less education and non-White
race/ethnicity may be factors in not having a physician recommendation
for screening.
Durado Brooks, M.D., director of prostate and
colorectal cancers for the American Cancer Society, said the study
strongly supports the view of the ACS that there is not enough
screening for colorectal cancer because physicians simply are not
recommending it enough.
The data come from the National Health Interview
Survey, which is conducted annually by the government with in-person
interviews in about 36,000 households.
Source: Health Behavior News Service: (202) 387-2829 or
www.hbns.org
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