The type and level of a person's health insurance coverage and number of preventive health visits to a physician affects colorectal cancer screening rates.
The findings, by researchers at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, appear in the July issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.
In a study of 1002 Massachusetts residents aged 50 years or older, researchers found 51.7% of those aged 50 to 64 years and 61.5% of those older than 64 years had been screened using colonoscopy or barium enema within the prior 10 years, or had flexible sigmoidoscopy performed within 5 years, or had fecal occult blood testing within the past year.
People were more likely to be screened for colorectal cancer if they saw their physician regularly (63.7% vs 26.7%) and if they received a physician's recommendation for a flexible sigmoidoscopy—although more Medicare patients, 42.5%, than younger patients, 33.8%, reported . . . [Full Text of this Article]
