You know what tests you need. Maybe it’s a mammogram and pap smear. Maybe it’s a colonoscopy. But do you know when you should start getting these tests in order to help protect yourself from cancer?
According to the Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS), most Americans don’t know the appropriate age to start cancer screening tests. The National Cancer Institute developed HINTS to see how the general public accesses and uses information about cancer and has been studying screening habits since 2002.
The bad news:
- Fifty-seven percent of American women did not know they should be getting mammograms starting at age forty.
- Most women don’t know that the National Cancer Institute advices a Pap test at least once every three years to screen for cervical cancer.
- More than sixty percent of women don’t know what human papillomavirus (HPV) is. If you don’t know, it is a leading cause of cervical cancer.
- Forty percent of Americans surveyed by HINTS could not name ONE test that screens for colorectal cancer.
- Fifty-four percent of Americans did not know that colorectal cancer screening is recommended for men and women starting at age fifty.
The good news:
- Seventy-five percent of women reported that their doctors recommended mammograms to screen for breast cancer.
- Seventy-four percent of American women actually went through with the test in the suggested timeframe.
- Eighty-seven percent of women get an annual Pap test to screen for cervical cancer.
In case you don’t know: women should be screened for breast cancer with mammograms every one to two years starting at age forty. Women should be screened at least once every three years for cervical cancer once they become sexually active. Men and women should be screened for colorectal cancer starting at age fifty.
- More about cancer from Families.com
- For more information about the Health Information National Trend Survey.
- For more information about the National Cancer Institute