Related Experiment Video For Academic hospital staff
Updated: Mar 15, 2026
Evaluation of Colorectal Cancer Risk and Prevalence by Stool DNA Integrity Detection
Published on: June 8, 2020
Academic hospital staff compliance with a fecal immunochemical test-based colorectal cancer screening program
Georgia Vlachonikolou1, Paraskevas Gkolfakis1, Athanasios D Sioulas1
1Georgia Vlachonikolou, Paraskevas Gkolfakis, Athanasios D Sioulas, Ioannis S Papanikolaou, Anastasia Melissaratou, Giannis-Aimant Moustafa, Eleni Xanthopoulou, Gerasimos Tsilimidos, Ioanna Tsironi, Paraskevas Filippidis, Chrysoula Malli, George D Dimitriadis, Konstantinos Triantafyllou, Hepatogastroenterology Unit, Second Department of Internal Medicine and Research Institute, Attikon University General Hospital, Medical School, University of Athens, 12462 Athens, Greece.
Aim:
To measure the compliance of an Academic Hospital staff with a colorectal cancer (CRC) screening program using fecal immunochemical test (FIT).
Methods:
All employees of "Attikon" University General Hospital aged over 50 years were thoroughly informed by a team of physicians and medical students about the study aims and they were invited to undergo CRC screening using two rounds of FIT (DyoniFOB(®) Combo H, DyonMed SA, Athens, Greece). The tests were provided for free and subjects tested positive were subsequently referred for colonoscopy. One year after completing the two rounds, participants were asked to be re-screened by means of the same test.
Results:
Among our target population consisted of 211 employees, 59 (27.9%) consented to participate, but only 41 (19.4%) and 24 (11.4%) completed the first and the second FIT round, respectively. Female gender was significantly associated with higher initial participation (P = 0.005) and test completion - first and second round - (P = 0.004 and P = 0.05) rates, respectively. Physician's (13.5% vs 70.2%, P < 0.0001) participation and test completion rates (7.5% vs 57.6%, P < 0.0001 for the first and 2.3% vs 34%, P < 0.0001 for the second round) were significantly lower compared to those of the administrative/technical staff. Similarly, nurses participated (25.8% vs 70.2%, P = 0.0002) and completed the first test round (19.3% vs 57.6%, P = 0.004) in a significant lower rate than the administrative/technical staff. One test proved false positive. No participant repeated the test one year later.
Conclusion:
Despite the well-organized, guided and supervised provision of the service, the compliance of the Academic Hospital personnel with a FIT-based CRC screening program was suboptimal, especially among physicians.
