Colorectal cancer screening behaviors.

Area of Science:

• Preventive medicine
• Public health
• Health behavior research

Background:

• Colorectal cancer screening compliance in Turkey is low (20-30%).
• The Health Belief Model (HBM) scale, developed in 1950, is used to understand participation in screening programs.
• The Turkish version of the HBM scale for colon cancer was validated in 2007.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate health beliefs of young individuals regarding colorectal cancer screening.
• To assess attitudes towards colorectal cancer screening using the Turkish HBM scale.
• To explore the relationship between health beliefs and attitudes in a pre-screening age group.

Main Methods:

• A questionnaire combining sociodemographic and 33 HBM scale questions was administered.
• Participants were recruited from a Family Medicine outpatient clinic with a predominantly young patient population.
• Data analysis was performed using IBM SPSS version 21.0.

Main Results:

• 215 subjects (69.3% participation rate) completed the study, with an average age of 35.4 years; 62.8% were women.
• 58.1% agreed that colonoscopies should start at age 50.
• Age, marital status, education, and occupation affected barrier scores; younger individuals, singles, and those with lower education reported higher barriers.

Conclusions:

• Attitudes toward preventive health measures for colorectal cancer are linked to age, gender, education, and marital status.
• Personal characteristics and specific barriers should inform the design of screening programs and preventive health messages.
• Personalized communication strategies, rather than general messages, are recommended to enhance screening test uptake from a young age.