HEDS researchers are leading an innovative project to help to improve our understanding of why some people don’t accept their invitation to be screened for colorectal cancer (CRC). Within the United Kingdom CRC is the second most common cause of cancer death. Screening for CRC can help to reduce the number of deaths that it causes due to earlier identification and treatment. This project is aiming to link data on the uptake of screening to data from the Yorkshire Health Study (formerly the South Yorkshire Cohort). This is a research project that has collected information on a wide variety of factors that may influence screening uptake including morbidities, demographics, socio-economic status and lifestyle factors. The impact of having a morbidity (existing health condition) on screening uptake shall be the main focus of this study, although the impact of other factors shall also be assessed.
This project is currently awaiting ethics approval before it can begin. The HEDS research team is led by Ben Kearns, and includes Jim Chilcott, Sophie Whyte and Helen Buckley Woods. We are also working with Amanda Loban from the Clinical Trials Research Unit.