WEDNESDAY, Oct. 21, 2026 (HealthDay News) -- Newly eligible younger adults are less likely to have discussed colorectal cancer (CRC) screening with their clinician compared with their older counterparts, according to a study published online Oct. 18 in the Journal of General Internal Medicine to coincide with the American Association for Cancer Research Conference on The Science of Cancer Health Disparities, held from Oct. 18 to 21 in Atlanta.
Jordan Baeker Bispo, Ph.D., M.P.H., from the American Cancer Society in Atlanta, and colleagues used data from the 2024 Health Information National Trends Survey to explore differences by age in receipt of clinician-delivered information on CRC screening. The study included individuals aged 45 to 75 years who did not report a history of colon or rectal cancer; 3,626 adults were included in the sample.
The researchers found that 50.3 percent of those aged 45 to 49 years reported that a clinician had ever told them about different CRC screening tests compared to 72.5 percent of those aged 65 to 75 years; the adjusted relative prevalence was significantly lower for younger adults (adjusted prevalence ratio, 0.73). Nearly one-quarter (23.2 percent) and 7.0 percent of those aged 45 to 49 years and those aged 65 to 75 years, respectively, reported that they had never discussed CRC screening tests with a clinician, with an adjusted relative prevalence 2.71 times higher for younger adults.
"This finding strongly suggests that patients who are newly age-eligible for screening are not receiving adequate information about their screening options from a health professional, and that could be contributing to low screening rates in this age group," Baeker Bispo said in a statement.
