Patient Non-adherence and Cancellations Are Higher for Screening Colonoscopy Compared with Surveillance Colonoscopy

A significant proportion of the eligible population is non-adherent to colonoscopy for colorectal cancer (CRC) screening.

To define the demographic and clinical variables associated with non-adherence and multiple cancellations to scheduled colonoscopy within 1 year in a CRC screening and adenomatous polyp surveillance population.

This was an observational cohort study of 617 consecutive patients scheduled to undergo colonoscopy at an outpatient academic tertiary care center for CRC screening or adenomatous polyp surveillance from January 2012 to September 2012.

Overall, 551 patients (89.3%) were adherent and 66 (10.7%) were non-adherent to scheduled colonoscopy at 1 year. The relative risk for non-adherence was 5.42 [95% confidence interval (CI) 2.74-10.75] in patients undergoing colonoscopy for screening compared to those for surveillance (16.7 vs. 3.5% non-adherence, respectively, P < 0.001). An indication of screening in comparison with surveillance was associated with non-adherence [odds ratio (OR) 12.69, 95% CI 4.18-38.51] and multiple cancellations (OR 2.33, 95% CI 1.27-4.31) by multiple regression analysis.

Patients undergoing colonoscopy for CRC screening are significantly less likely to attend their scheduled procedure within a year and have more procedure cancellations than those undergoing surveillance colonoscopy.