Do fears of getting cancer and family history of cancer influence participation in opportunistic screening or organized screening for gastric cancer?

Abstract

e13045 Background: Cancer is the leading cause of death in Korea. Individuals with a family history of cancer might overestimate their personal risk for getting cancer and report high cancer-related worry or concern. Those factors could positively or negatively influence on cancer screening behavior. Although Korea has a universal screening program for common cancers, some people still choose opportunistic screening program with out-of-pocket costs. This study was to identify association between fears of getting cancer and participation on opportunistic anc organized screening programs for cancer. Methods: The study population was derived from the Korean National Cancer Screening Survey 2013, which is annual survey conducted by National Cancer Center of Korea in order to investigate trends of participation rates among general population in cancer screening. 3,004 individuals aged over 40 years were finally selected as study subjects. Chi-square tests and multinomial logistic regression model were used to identify factors associated with being screened for gastric cancer. Results: A total of 2,078 of the subjects (69.2%) underwent gastric cancer screening, of which 311 individuals (10.4%) participated in opportunistic and 1,767 individuals (58.8%) participated in organized screening programs. After adjusting socio-demographic factors and health behaviors, worry and concern about cancer were identified as factors positively associated with being screened for gastric cancer. ORs for undergoing gastric cancer screening were elevated for both screening programs according to the level of worry and concern about cancer (p for trend < 0.05). We did not found relationship between family history of gastric cancer and participation. Conclusions: The results of this study suggest that fears of getting cancer such as worry and concerned about cancer had a stronger influence on participation in not only organized screening program but also opportunistic screening program. We could identify that ORs for undergoing the opportunistic screening were slightly higher than those for undergoing the organized screening in terms of cancer worry and cancer concern.