Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"September 10, 2026 6 min read
Add topic to email alerts
Receive an email when new articles are posted on
Please provide your email address to receive an email when new articles are posted on . “
data-action=”subscribe”>
Subscribe
We were unable to process your request. Please try again later. If you continue to have this issue please contact customerservice@slackinc.com. Back to Healio Key takeaways: Adults with disabilities are significantly less likely to undergo routine cancer screenings. The largest gaps exist for those with self-care disabilities and those with greater disability-related difficulty. U.S. adults with disabilities are considerably less likely than those without them to undergo routine cancer screening, according to an analysis of national survey data. Researchers observed the largest screening gaps among individuals with self-care disabilities, such as difficulty dressing or bathing.
Data derived from Mazzitelli N, et al. Cancer. 2026;doi:10.1002\/cncr.70557.
Screening prevalence also declined as disability-related difficulty levels increased. For example, adults who reported \u201csubstantial\u201d difficulties with self-care appeared 37% less likely to undergo cervical cancer screening and 31% less likely to undergo breast cancer screening than adults with no difficulty. Screening also declined with greater difficulty in other disability domains, such as cognition, mobility and vision. Priti Bandi, PhD The findings are \u201ccause for alarm,\u201d according to senior author Priti Bandi, PhD, scientific director for cancer risk factors and screening surveillance research at American Cancer Society. \u201cWe know individuals with disabilities tend to have lower access to healthcare, but the magnitude of the disparities we observed \u2014 and the consistency with which they showed up across different domains \u2014 really surprised me,\u201d Bandi told Healio. \u201cBeing able to document this represents a call to action. This needs to be addressed.\u201d \u2018A clearer picture\u2019 More than one in four adults in the United States have some type of disability, according to CDC statistics. The most prevalent disabilities are those that affect cognition (13.9%), mobility (12.2%), independent living (7.7%), hearing (6.2%), vision (5.5%) and self-care (3.6%). All-cause mortality risk is more than double among individuals with disabilities than without, and risk for death due to chronic conditions \u2014 including cancer \u2014 also is higher, according to study background. Prior research showed people with cognitive, mobility or intellectual disabilities are less adherent to cancer screening. This may be due to barriers related to clinic access (eg, lack of transportation or insurance), personal factors (eg, fear of embarrassment or distrust of the medical system) or difficulties completing the physical aspects of screening, Bandi said. However, evidence about how adherence varies based on disability domains and related difficulty is limited. \u201cHaving a clearer picture about how disabilities impact receipt of cancer preventive services across disability domains \u2014 not just physical, but also the more \u2018invisible\u2019 disabilities related to cognition and communication \u2014 is critical to help develop interventions that are relevant and effective for these populations,\u201d Bandi said. Bandi and colleagues \u2014 including lead author Natalia Mazzitelli, MPH \u2014 evaluated self-reported adherence to U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommendations for breast, cervical and colorectal cancer screening among adults with disabilities vs. those without, calculating adjusted prevalence ratios (aPR) to make the comparisons. The researchers pooled data from the National Health Interview Survey in 2021 and 2023. Each survey collected a broad range of data about health topics from more than 29,000 noninstitutionalized adults. Investigators assessed self-reported screening rates based on six functioning domains \u2014 vision, hearing, mobility, communication, cognition and self-care. Because there often is overlap between domains, researchers analyzed the degree of difficulty for each one \u2014 using the Washington Group Composite Disability Indicator, a validated tool that classifies severity of functional limitations \u2014 to further clarify individuals at greatest risk for screening nonadherence. Key findings The researchers identified survey respondents with disabilities eligible for breast screening (n = 1,712; population weighted, n = 6.02 million), cervical screening (n = 1,147, population weighted, n = 5.1 million) and colorectal screening (n = 3,106; population weighted, n = 11.17 million). Results revealed the following trends by screening type: Breast cancer: Eligible adults with \u201csubstantial\u201d difficulties across multiple disability domains had lower screening prevalence than those who reported no difficulties, with the lowest prevalence in the self-care (52% vs. 79%; aPR = 0.69; 95% CI, 0.58-0.82), vision (62% vs. 79%; aPR = 0.83; 95% CI, 0.75-0.91) and mobility (68% vs. 79%; aPR = 0.89; 95% CI, 0.85-0.93) domains. Results showed significantly lower screening prevalence among those with \u201csome\u201d difficulties vs. no difficulty in self-care (71% vs. 79%; aPR = 0.93; 95% CI, 0.88-0.99), cognition (75% vs. 79%; aPR = 0.96; 95% CI, 0.94-0.99) and vision (75% vs. 79%; aPR = 0.96; 95% CI, 0.94-0.99). Cervical cancer: Eligible adults who reported \u201csubstantial\u201d difficulties across multiple disability domains had lower screening prevalence than those who reported no difficulties, with the lowest prevalence in the self-care (37% vs. 78%; aPR = 0.63; 95% CI, 0.51-0.78), vision (64% vs. 78%; aPR = 0.89; 95% CI, 0.8-0.98), mobility (65% vs. 78%; aPR = 0.88; 95% CI, 0.82-0.94) and cognitive (64% vs. 78%; aPR = 0.91; 95% CI, 0.85-0.98) domains. Results showed significantly lower screening prevalence among those with \u201csubstantial\u201d communication difficulties (35% vs. 78%; aPR = 0.65; 95% CI, 0.52-0.82) and \u201csome\u201d communication difficulties (62% vs. 78%; aPR = 0.89; 95% CI, 0.83-0.95) than those with no difficulty. Colorectal cancer: Eligible adults who reported \u201csubstantial\u201d difficulty with self-care had significantly lower prevalence of any screening \u2014 colonoscopy or stool testing \u2014 than those who reported no difficulty (60% vs. 72%; aPR = 0.85; 95% CI, 0.76-0.95). \u201cBreast cancer screening is crucial for early detection, but cervical cancer screening and colorectal cancer screening with colonoscopy are preventive,\u201d Bandi said. \u201cSeeing such a significant proportion of eligible individuals with disabilities not being screened according to recommendations translates to a tremendous population burden \u2014 in the millions \u2014 of cancers that will not be prevented or detected early.\u201d There may be an opportunity for targeted intervention among<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3643,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3642","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/drsoniafawad.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3642","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/drsoniafawad.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/drsoniafawad.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drsoniafawad.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drsoniafawad.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3642"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/drsoniafawad.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3642\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drsoniafawad.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3643"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/drsoniafawad.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3642"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drsoniafawad.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3642"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drsoniafawad.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3642"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"hemonc](\"https:\/\/www.healio.com\/~\/media\/h5\/feature\/news\/publogos\/hot.svg?la=en&h=24&w=141&hash=2F86D471C8514C0E334E329AA799E8B4\")
\n <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n