Cancer screening practices among Chinese worksite employees – Source of health information and greatest influencers to screening decisions

Background: There is urgent need to identify effective communication channels and culturally-relevant intervention strategies to encourage cancer screenings among Asian, a group with one of the lowest screening rates but disproportionate higher cancer morbidities. This study describes screening practices among Chinese worksite employees age 40 and older, explores common sources of health information, and greatest influencers to screening decisions. Methods: Participants were recruited from ten worksites in Taiwan (valid n=375). Baseline survey data from a screening trial were analyzed. Results: Findings showed about one third of participants reported routine health check-up, and only 11.5% ever had colorectal cancer screenings. Cancer screening communication with doctors was extremely low (8.2%). Although over half of the participants had family cancer history, 90% rated their cancer risk were similar or lower comparing with others. More men than women indicated children (71.6% vs. 45.8%) as the greatest influencer on screening decision, whereas more women also indicated siblings (16.7% vs. 6.7%), parents (13.2% vs. 5.8%), and spouse (10.4% vs. 6.7%) were important. Main sources of health information were newspaper / magazine (78.9%), followed by TV/radio (61.9%), health care professionals (51.1%), and then family members (41.6%). Conclusions: Even with the well-covered health insurance and health policy, cancer screenings were still severely under-utilized among the Chinese worksite population in Taiwan. Study showed promise of using children as a potential change agent for culturally-relevant screening intervention strategies. Data also shed light on potential effective communication channels to promote regular cancer screenings for this group.