Disregarding the impact of nicotine on the developing brain when evaluating costs and benefits of noncombustible nicotine products

Participation in screening for colorectal cancer (CRC) may be affected by general beliefs about cancer and about CRC screening. The aim of this population-based study was to examine prospectively the association between beliefs about cancer and CRC screening and later participation in screening for CRC. We included 1285 individuals who had answered ‘the Awareness and Beliefs about Cancer (ABC) measure’ in 2011 and who had been invited to CRC screening in 2014–2016. The ABC measure includes statements about six general beliefs about cancer and three beliefs about CRC screening. These data were combined with register-based information on CRC screening behaviour, which was obtained from the Danish Colorectal Cancer Screening Database. Multivariate analyses showed that individuals who tended to agree that they would worry about what might be found in the CRC screening (PR: 1.66, 95% CI: 1.24–2.23) and individuals who strongly agreed that screening is only necessary if symptoms are present (PR: 1.35, 95% CI: 1.05–1.75) were more likely to be non-participants than individuals who strongly disagreed with these beliefs. Included individuals were also more likely to be non-participants if they strongly agreed that they did not want to know about cancer (PR: 1.50, 95% CI: 1.09–2.07), whereas those who strongly agreed that screening could reduce their risk of dying from CRC were less likely to be non-participants (PR: 0.69, 95% CI: 0.49–0.97). This study shows that beliefs about CRC screening and, to a lesser extent, general beliefs about cancer are associated with participation in screening for CRC.