Colorectal cancer screening among African-American and white male veterans.

Dolan NC, Ferreira MR, Fitzgibbon ML, Davis TC, Rademaker AW, Liu D, Lee J, Wolf M, Schmitt BP, Bennett CL. Colorectal cancer screening among African-American and white male veterans. American journal of preventive medicine. 2005 Jun 1; 28(5):479-82.

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Abstract:

BACKGROUND: Population-based studies from Medicare and privately insured individuals have consistently identified lower rates of colorectal cancer-screening tests among African-American versus white individuals. The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether, at a Veterans Affairs (VA) medical center, similar racial/ethnic differences in colorectal cancer screening could be identified. METHODS: Study participants were male veterans, aged > or = 50, attending a general medicine clinic in a VA hospital, who had not had either a fecal occult blood test (FOBT) within the past year or a flexible sigmoidoscopy/colonoscopy within the past 5 years. Based on review of electronic medical records, rates of physician recommendation for FOBT, flexible sigmoidoscopy, or colonoscopy, and patient completion of these tests were obtained and compared by race/ethnicity. RESULTS: Sixty percent of 1599 veterans had not undergone recent colorectal cancer screening. Physicians recommended colorectal screening tests equally among African-American and white patients (71.0% vs 68.2%, p = 0.44). African-American patients were 1.3 times more likely than white patients to receive colorectal screening procedures (36.3% vs 28.9%, p = 0.03). CONCLUSIONS: In contrast to other settings, in a general medicine clinic at a VA hospital, rates of colorectal cancer-screening tests were not lower for African-American patients compared to white patients.