CDC: U.S. Colorectal Cancer Screening Rates Up

by -- Beth Gilbert
Updated: Jul 6th 2010

TUESDAY, July 6 (HealthDay News) -- Colorectal cancer (CRC) screening rates have increased in the United States since 2002 and mammography rates have plateaued, while millions of people have not undergone recommended CRC screening, and millions of women have not had a recent mammogram, according to research published July 6 in an early issue of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

Lisa C. Richardson, M.D., and colleagues at the CDC in Atlanta estimated the prevalence of CRC and breast cancer screening in the United States using Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System data. According to the report, the overall age-adjusted CRC screening prevalence was 62.9 percent in 2008 for adults aged 50 to 75 years, up from 51.9 percent in 2002. Adults aged 50 to 59 years (53.9 percent), Hispanics (49.8 percent), individuals with lower income (47.6 percent), those with less than a high school education (46.1 percent), and those who lacked health insurance (35.6 percent) were among those reporting the lowest CRC screening prevalence.

According to another section of the report, the overall age-adjusted mammography prevalence was 81.1 percent in 2008 for women aged 50 to 74 years, compared with 81.5 percent in 2006. Women who resided in the northeastern United States experienced the highest mammography prevalence, while women aged 50 to 59 years (79.9 percent), those who did not finish high school (72.6 percent), American Indian/Alaska Natives (70.4 percent), individuals with an annual income of less than $15,000 (69.4 percent), and those who lacked health insurance (56.3 percent) were among those who reported the lowest mammography prevalence.

"The most common reason women give for not having a mammogram is that no one recommended the test; therefore, health care providers have the most important role in increasing the prevalence of up-to-date mammography among women in the United States," the authors write.

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