Importance of colon cancer screening

The researchers explained that the main reason for this conclusion is that providers of health care don’t really recommend the tests which have a potential of saving lives. Something very interesting that did come up is that the study suggested that one of the most important things that needed to be done was talking to doctors. While all the public policy wanted can be done, it is also essential that providers understand clearly the importance of emphasizing on screening of colon cancer and most importantly, recommend patients to go for colon cancer screening regardless of their ethnic backgrounds.

In US, colon cancer has been found to be the second in line among the major causes of death. It is estimated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that about 37% Latinos, 49% African Americans as well as 48 percent of Asian Americans that are aged above 50 years went to get screening in 2008 in comparison to 56 percent of whites who went through the same screening. The highest cases of colon cancer as well as deaths resulting from the disease have been found in African Americans as pointed out by the authors of the study. The highest advanced rate of colon cancer has been found among the Latinos and their likelihood of surviving is much less than whites. For Asian Americans, colon cancer is rated as the third in line among the major causes of deaths.

While uptake of colon cancer, screening in US is very poor in overall, undeserved groups tend to have a very poor uptake as the lead study author noted. Various studies undertaken in the past have shown that recommendations by health care providers can assist the patients a lot in being screened. It is in this regard that the researchers tried to look at whether lack of recommendation from doctors could contribute in any way to the lagging rates of screening found in minorities.

Importance of doctor’s recommendations in screening

To ascertain the importance of the recommendations of the doctors, the team analyzed responses taken during a 2009 survey whereby those who participated were asked about their health, health insurance and their visits to providers of health care. The 5, 793 people who were involved during this analysis were aged between 50 and 75 years of age and none of them had gone for colon cancer screening on any of the tests accepted such as fecal occult blood test, sigmoidoscopy and colonoscopy. In the group slightly more than half of them were whites, 12% Asian, 21% Latino and 5.3% African Americans while the rest were ‘others’. The researchers stressed on the importance of health care providers recommending their patients to go for colon cancer screening in order to boost their survival rates in case they are diagnosed with the condition.