Department of Preventive Medicine & Institute of Health Services Research, College of Medicine, Yonsei University, 50 Yonsei-ro, Seodaemun-gu, Seoul 120-749, Korea.
BMC Cancer. 2012 Sep 10;12:400. doi: 10.1186/1471-2407-12-400.
The prognosis for an abnormal medical finding is affected by both early detection and adherence to the presecribed schedule for follow-up examinations. In this study, we examined the time to follow up after an abnormal finding and determined the risk factors related to delays in follow up in a population-based screening program.
The study population consisted of patients who were newly diagnosed with gastric cancer through a gastric cancer screening program sponsored by the National Cancer Screening Program (NCSP) in 2005. Due to the skewed nature of the distribution of time to follow up, medians and interquartile ranges (IQR) are presented, and we analyzed the number of days preceding the follow-up time as a binary variable (≤ 90 days or >90 days). We used logistic regression analyses to evaluate the risk factors for a long delay.
The median number of days to follow-up initiation after an abnormal finding was 11 (IQR 7-27); 13.9% of the patients with gastric cancer obtained their follow-up evaluation more than 90 days. Age, type of health insurance, screening method, and screening results were risk factors for delays in follow up.
This study examined delays from the time of the discovery of an abnormal finding to time of the follow-up evaluation. Because inadequate follow up of abnormal exam results undermines the potential benefits of cancer screening, it is important to organize services that minimize delays between cancer screening and treatment.
异常医学发现的预后受到早期检测和遵循预定随访检查时间表的影响。在这项研究中，我们检查了异常发现后的随访时间，并确定了人群筛查计划中与随访延迟相关的风险因素。
研究人群包括通过国家癌症筛查计划（NCSP）在 2005 年新诊断出胃癌的患者。由于随访时间分布的偏态性质，中位数和四分位距（IQR）呈现出来，我们分析了随访时间前的天数作为二项变量（≤90 天或>90 天）。我们使用逻辑回归分析评估了延迟的风险因素。
异常发现后开始随访的中位数天数为 11 天（IQR 7-27）；13.9%的胃癌患者超过 90 天进行随访评估。年龄、健康保险类型、筛查方法和筛查结果是随访延迟的风险因素。
本研究检查了从发现异常到进行随访评估的时间延迟。由于异常检查结果的随访不足会降低癌症筛查的潜在益处，因此组织服务以最大程度地减少癌症筛查和治疗之间的延迟非常重要。
