Cancer Fatalism and Poor Self-Rated Health Mediate the Association between Socioeconomic Status and Uptake of Colorectal Cancer Screening in England

Abstract

Background: Little is known about the psychological predictors of colorectal screening uptake in England and mediators of associations between uptake and socioeconomic status (SES). This study tested the hypotheses that although higher threat and efficacy beliefs, lower cancer fatalism, lower depression, and better self-rated health would predict higher screening uptake, only efficacy beliefs, fatalism, depression, and self-rated health would mediate associations between uptake and SES.

Methods: Data from 529 adults aged 60 to 69 who had completed a postal survey in 2005–2006 were linked with data on fecal occult blood test (FOBt) uptake recorded at the screening “hub” following its introduction in 2007, resulting in a prospective study.

Results: Screening uptake was 56% and was higher among people with higher SES, better self-rated health, higher self-efficacy beliefs, and lower cancer fatalism in univariate analyses. Path analysis on participants with complete data (n = 515) showed that both better self-rated health and lower cancer fatalism were directly associated with higher uptake of FOBt screening and significantly mediated pathways from SES to uptake. Lower depression only had an indirect effect on uptake through better self-rated health. Efficacy beliefs did not mediate the relationship between SES and uptake.

Conclusion: SES differences in uptake of FOBt in England are partially explained by differences in cancer fatalism, self-rated health, and depression.

Impact: This is one of only a few studies to examine mediators of the relationship between SES and screening uptake, and future research could test the effectiveness of interventions to reduce fatalistic beliefs to increase equality of uptake. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev; 20(10); 2132–40. ©2011 AACR.