title: Why do people choose not to have screening for hemochromatosis?
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Hemochromatosis is a common disorder of iron overload most commonly due to homozogosity for the HFE C282Y substitution. A workplace-screening program was conducted in which over 11,000 individuals were screened for this mutation. A substudy of this project was to ascertain why people chose not to attend information and screening sessions offered in their workplace.
  
  
  METHODS
  Staff were recruited by email, questionnaires in common areas, and direct approach. A purpose-designed questionnaire sought the reasons for not attending information and screening sessions.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The nonattender questionnaire was distributed at 24 workplaces and completed by 872 individuals. The most common reason for not attending sessions, accounting for 70.1%, was practical (e.g., unaware of session, too busy, or unavailable). Other relatively common reasons were that the individual had low iron levels or were a blood donor (14.9%), or that hemochromatosis was considered unimportant (12.2%). Insurance concerns were very rarely cited as the reason for nonattendance (1.0%).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The nonattender data presented here indicate that concerns about insurance, anxiety, and use of genetic information are not major factors for why people did not attend workplace information and screening sessions for hereditary hemochromatosis. Practical barriers were the major reasons identified. This highlights that when implementing screening programs, as many practical barriers as possible need to be overcome, so that a maximum number of people who would like to be informed about screening are given the opportunity to do so.
authors.affiliation: Murdoch Childrens Research Institute, Parkville, Australia.
authors.forename: Michelle
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Wolthuizen
authors.forename: Amy
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Nisselle
authors.forename: Jane
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Halliday
authors.forename: Sylvia A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Metcalfe
authors.forename: MaryAnne
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Aitken
authors.forename: Katie J
authors.initials: KJ
authors.lastname: Allen
authors.forename: Martin B
authors.initials: MB
authors.lastname: Delatycki
mesh_terms: D001782:Blood Donors; D042241:Early Diagnosis; D005260:Female; D005820:Genetic Testing; D006432:Hemochromatosis / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000235:genetics / Q000517:prevention & control; D006801:Humans; D007501:Iron / Q000097:blood / Q000378:metabolism; D008297:Male; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000458:organization & administration / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D017132:Workplace
chemical_list: D007501:Iron