TITLE:
Do Patients in a Primary Care Practice Know the Current Cancer Screening Guidelines?
AUTHORS:
Neil D’Souza, Morgan Slater, Aisha Lofters
KEYWORDS:
Cancer Screening, Health Promotion, Illness Prevention
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Preventive Medicine,
Vol.4 No.5,
May
21,
2014
ABSTRACT:
Background: In
spite of supporting evidence and widespread promotional campaigns, screening
rates for breast, cervical and colorectal cancers in Ontario are lower than
expected. These low screening rates may be partially due to lack of knowledge
on the part of patients. Given the importance of early detection to reduce
cancer mortality and morbidity, it is prudent to investigate where knowledge
deficits may exist. The purpose of this study was to assess patient knowledge
of the Ontario screening guidelines for breast, cervical and colorectal
cancers. Methods: Patients of a family health team in Toronto, Ontario were
surveyed regarding their knowledge of cancer screening guidelines. Questions
included knowledge regarding the test, screening interval and age for cancer
screening for breast, cervical and colorectal cancers as well as
sociodemographic characteristics. Responses were summarized using descriptive
statistics. Results: A total of 117 patients were surveyed. Knowledge of the
appropriate screening test was high for breast and cervical cancer (85.5% and
70.1% respectively) though much lower for colorectal cancer (17.1%). Knowledge
regarding the age that screening should occur and the screening intervals were
much lower across all cancer types. For breast cancer, 16.2% knew the age
screening should occur and 30.8% knew the screening interval. For cervical
cancer, 6.8% knew the age screening should occur and only 4.3% knew the
screening interval. For colorectal cancer, 32.5% knew the age to start
screening and 26% knew the screening interval. Conclusions: Knowledge of the
cancer screening guidelines appeared to be low across all cancer types,
particularly for the ages at when screening should occur and the appropriate
screening intervals. These results suggest that public health practitioners and
cancer prevention organizations may need to increase efforts for patient education on cancer screening.