Sangyo Eiseigaku Zasshi

[Medical behavior after colo-rectal cancer screening--comparison with that after stomach cancer screening]

Year 1998
Mizoue T. Ueda R. Hino Y. Yoshimura T.
Department of Clinical Epidemiology, University of Occupational and Environmental Health, Kitakyushu, Japan.
Medical behavior for intensive examination after colo-rectal cancer screening was examined in comparison with that after stomach cancer screening. Examinees who were positive in colo-rectal or stomach cancer screening, provided by an Occupational Health Organization from April 1993 to March 1994, were monitored for their medical behavior through notifications from physicians. The main results were as follows: 1. The proportion of those with the notification from a physician after colo-rectal cancer screening was half of that after stomach cancer screening. 2. Among those notified the rate of those who undertook intensive examination by the end of 12 weeks after the screening was 79.7% for a colo-rectal site and 87.0% for the stomach. The time interval from the screening to the intensive examination for the colo-rectal site was significantly longer than that for stomach. 3. For colo-rectal cancer screening, the proportion of those with the notification was lower in females than in males, and in those aged less than 50 than in those aged 50 or older. There were no differences in the proportion between those screened at the work site and those at the occupational health service center, and between those positive in the fecal occult blood test and those negative in the test but positive in the health interview. These results indicated, assuming that the probability of the physicians' notification was unrelated to the type of examination, a smaller proportion of the examinees positive in the colo-rectal cancer screening consulted a physician for the intensive examination later than those positive in the stomach cancer screening. It is therefore necessary to make colo-rectal cancer screening effective to establish a collaborating system which effectively facilitates the medical behavior of the screening positives.