Thousands of New Zealanders are failing to get proper screening for bowel cancer.
New research found over a 10-year period more than 7000 eligible people tried but failed, due to an error with the test or it not being done properly.
It found deprivation was a huge factor in people failing to do the test again.
Study author Chey Dearing from the Eastern Institute of Technology said people of Māori and Asian and Pacific ethnicity were more likely to miss out – and they were not the only ones.
“We found that males, compared with females, were more likely to attempt but fail,” Dearing told RNZ.
Bowel cancer — also known as colorectal cancer — was the second-highest cause of cancer death in New Zealand, behind lung cancer. Around 3000 new cases are diagnosed each year, and the rate amongst under-50s was increasing.
The study looked at data from the New Zealand National Bowel Screening Programme between 2012 and 2022. Out of 569,665 participants, 7126 (1.26%) failed to get tested, “including reasons such as consent forms not being signed or dated, barcodes not being attached to the sample, insufficient sample collected, kits being outside expiry dates and other similar errors”.
Anyone who submitted a first “spoilt” kit was sent another, and some were even contacted directly, but some either failed to respond or sent a second faulty kit back.
The response rate was improving between 2012 and 2016, but worsened over the following five years.
Dearing said there were simple solutions available.
“The suggestion we made was a drop-off service, and that could be in any location that’s close to where the high-deprivation individuals that are doing this are, and it might be culturally appropriate as well.
“So even, perhaps you could even have it on a marae or something like that.”
The analysis was published in the latest issue of the New Zealand Medical Journal.
Two years ago, the Labour government announced $36 million of funding to bring the starting age for bowel screening for Māori and Pasifika people down to 50, from the previous starting age of 60.
That rollout has since stalled, with the new government saying in July it was under evaluation.
rnz.co.nz
