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The Role of Physician Recommendation in Colorectal Cancer Screening Receipt Among Immigrant Chinese Americans

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Abstract

Chinese Americans have low colorectal cancer (CRC) screening rates. It is unclear whether physicians should offer all CRC screening modalities (fecal occult blood test [FOBT], sigmoidoscopy, colonoscopy) to Chinese Americans to increase screening. Seven hundred and twenty-five Chinese Americans were asked in a survey if their physician had ever recommended CRC screening and to self-report receipt and type of CRC screening. Participants whose physician had recommended all CRC screening modalities were significantly more likely to report ever having screening (adjusted odds ratio 4.29, 95% CI 1.26–14.68) and being up-to-date (4.06, 95% CI 2.13–7.74) than those who reported that their physician only recommended FOBT. Participants who received a recommendation of only one type of screening did not report a significant difference in ever having or being up-to-date for screening. A potential strategy to increase CRC screening among Chinese Americans is for clinicians to recommend all available CRC screening modalities to each patient.

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Acknowledgements

This study was funded by the National Institutes of Health/National Cancer Institute (Grant No. 1R01CA138778). Additional support was provided by grant U54 CA153499 funded by the National Cancer Institute’s Center to Reduce Cancer Health Disparities. The funder had no role in study design, data collection, and analysis and preparation of the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Asian American Research Center on Health, San Francisco, CA, USA

    Jane Jih, Minh P. Nguyen, Irene Ly, Janice Y. Tsoh, Gem M. Le, Adam Burke, Rena Pasick, Stephen J. McPhee & Tung T. Nguyen

  2. Division of General Internal Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA

    Jane Jih, Ginny Gildengorin, Rena Pasick, Stephen J. McPhee & Tung T. Nguyen

  3. Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA

    Janice Y. Tsoh

  4. Division of General Internal Medicine, Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital/University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA

    Gem M. Le

  5. NICOS Chinese Health Coalition, San Francisco, CA, USA

    Kent Woo & Elaine Chan

  6. Division of Biostatistics, University of California, Davis, Davis, CA, USA

    Susan L. Stewart

  7. Department of Health Education, San Francisco State University, San Francisco, CA, USA

    Adam Burke

  8. Division of General Internal Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, 1545 Divisadero Street, P.O. Box 0320, San Francisco, CA, 94115, USA

    Jane Jih

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  1. Jane Jih
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  2. Minh P. Nguyen
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  3. Irene Ly
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  4. Janice Y. Tsoh
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  5. Gem M. Le
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  7. Elaine Chan
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  8. Ginny Gildengorin
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  9. Susan L. Stewart
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  10. Adam Burke
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  11. Rena Pasick
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  12. Stephen J. McPhee
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  13. Tung T. Nguyen
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jane Jih.

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Jih, J., Nguyen, M.P., Ly, I. et al. The Role of Physician Recommendation in Colorectal Cancer Screening Receipt Among Immigrant Chinese Americans. J Immigrant Minority Health 20, 1483–1489 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10903-017-0679-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10903-017-0679-0

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