New AHRQ Evidence Report on Colorectal Cancer Screening Use Is Available

February 26, 2010, Issue #287
AHRQ News and Numbers

6. New AHRQ Evidence Report on Colorectal Cancer Screening Use Is Available

Despite national recommendations supporting screening for colorectal cancer—a disease that kills an estimated 50,000 Americans a year—screening is still underused, especially by low-income people, the uninsured, Asians and Hispanics, foreign-born people, and/or those with limited English-language skills according to a new AHRQ evidence report. The reviewers, led by Debra J. Holden, Ph.D., found some increase in screening using colonoscopy, but rates of screening by sigmoidoscopy and fecal occult blood testing are decreasing. The reviewers also looked for evidence on strategies for encouraging colorectal cancer screening and found that some, such as contacting people to remind them to get screened, increased screening. Other strategies, including using printed matter and videos messages, either did not increase rates or produced mixed results. However, it is not clear that any specific set of interventions will increase screening rates nationally. The reviewers found no studies of how colorectal cancer screening has been effectively monitored, nor did they find any that systematically measured its quality. The report, Enhancing the Use and Quality of Colorectal Cancer Screening, was prepared by AHRQ’s RTI-UNC Evidence-Based Practice Center for the NIH State-of-the Science Conference on Enhancing the Use and Quality of Colorectal Cancer Screening held on February 2-4. Select to access the report (PDF File, 226 pages, PDF Help). A print copy is available by sending an e-mail to ahrqpubs@ahrq.hhs.gov.

http://www.ahrq.gov/downloads/pub/evidence/pdf/crcuse/crcuse.pdf