If you're in the second-half of your 40s, you should have "colon cancer screening" crossed off your to-do list. But if you haven't, you're unfortunately in good company. A new study out of UCLA has found that fewer than one in four adults ages 45 to 49 have been screened despite the recommended screening age being lowered from 50 to 45. That age adjustment was made by the United States Preventive Services Task Force in 2021, and MedPage Today reports the change made 20 million Americans newly eligible for screening.
Researchers used 2022 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System data to look at what percentage of adults in this age group had been tested since the update. Of the 13,300 people it had data on, only 22.5% had been screened. That figure is just a slight uptick from the 19.7% recorded in 2021, per a press release. The majority of those who did get screened—61%—opted for a colonoscopy, while 32% took a stool-based test. The rest used other methods, such as sigmoidoscopy or CT colonoscopy. The study, published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, explored whether unmet social needs—such as housing, transportation, or food insecurity—might be holding back screening rates, but after adjusting for a range of demographic and clinical factors, researchers found no clear link.
Lead author Dr. Katherine Chen says the continued low screening rate points to "a critical need for interventions"—such as media campaigns to raise awareness and policies that improve access to preventive care—"designed to increase screening uptake among all persons between ages 45 and 49."
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