Colorectal cancer screening among African-American and white male veterans.
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.
Dolan
Nancy C
NC
Department of Medicine, Northwestern University, Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, Illinois 60611, USA. ndo428@northwestern.edu
Ferreira
M Rosario
MR
Fitzgibbon
Marian L
ML
Davis
Terry C
TC
Rademaker
Alfred W
AW
Liu
Dachao
D
Lee
June
J
Wolf
Michael
M
Schmitt
Brian P
BP
Bennett
Charles L
CL
D001741:Black or African American; D002641:Chicago; D015179:Colorectal Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis*; D006787:Hospitals, Veterans; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008875:Middle Aged; D009780:Occult Blood; D010044:Outpatient Clinics, Hospital; D012812:Sigmoidoscopy; D014728:Veterans; D044465:White People