Race and colorectal cancer screening compliance among persons with a family history of cancer

AIM: To determine compliance to colorectal cancer(CRC) screening guidelines among persons with a family history of any type of cancer and investigate racial differences in screening compliance.METHODS: We used the 2007 Health Information National Trends Survey and identified 1094(27.4%)respondents(weighted population size = 21959672) without a family history of cancer and 3138(72.6%) respondents(weighted population size = 58201479) with a family history of cancer who were 50 years and older. We defined compliance with CRC screening as the use of fecal occult blood testing within 1 year, sigmoidoscopy within 5 years, or colonoscopy within 10 years. We compared compliance with CRC screening among those with and without a family member with a history of cancer. RESULTS: Overall, those with a family member with cancer were more likely to be compliant with CRC screening(64.9% vs 55.1%; OR = 1.45; 95%CI: 1.20-1.74). The absolute increase in screening rates associated with family history of cancer was 8.2% among whites. Hispanics had lowest screening rates among those without family history of cancer 41.9% but had highest absolute increase(14.7%) in CRC screening rate when they have a family member with cancer. Blacks had the lowest absolute increase in CRC screening(5.3%) when a family member has a known history of cancer. However, the noted increase in screening rates among blacks and Hispanics when they have a family member with cancer were not higher than whites without a family history of cancer:(54.5% vs 58.7%; OR = 1.16; 95%CI: 0.72-1.88) for blacks and(56.7% vs 58.7%; OR = 1.25; 95%CI: 0.72-2.18) for Hispanics.CONCLUSION: While adults with a family history of any cancer were more likely to be compliant with CRC screening guidelines irrespective of race/ethnicity, blacks and Hispanics with a family history of cancer were less likely to be compliant than whites without a family history. Increased burden from CRC among blacks may be related to poor uptake of screening among high-risk groups.

Beverage intake preference and bowel preparation laxative taste preference for colonoscopy

AIM: To examine whether non-alcoholic beverage intake preferences can guide polyethylene glycol(PEG)-based bowel laxative preparation selection for patients.METHODS: We conducted eight public taste test sessions using commercially procured(A) unflavored PEG,(B) citrus flavored PEG and(C) PEG with ascorbate(Moviprep). We collected characteristics of volunteers including their beverage intake preferences. The volunteers tasted the laxatives in randomly assigned orders and ranked the laxatives as 1st, 2nd, and 3rd based on their taste preferences. Our primary outcome is the number of 1st place rankings for each preparation. RESULTS: A total of 777 volunteers completed the study. Unflavored PEG was ranked as 1st by 70(9.0%), flavored PEG by 534(68.7%) and PEG with ascorbate by173(22.3%) volunteers. Demographic, lifestyle characteristics and beverage intake patterns for coffee, tea, and carbonated drinks did not predict PEG-based laxative preference.CONCLUSION: Beverage intake pattern was not a useful guide for PEG-based laxative preference. It is important to develop more tolerable and affordable bowel preparation laxatives for colonoscopy. Also, patients should taste their PEG solution with and without flavoring before flavoring the entire gallon as this may give them more opportunity to pick a pattern that may be more tolerable.