These diseases that affect the digestive system have no symptoms in their early stages, but early screening and detection may make the difference between life and death. Read more at straitstimes.com.
Background: Cancer has become the leading cause of mortality in Singapore and among other Asian populations worldwide. Despite the presence of National Cancer Screening programmes in Singapore, less than half of the population has had timely screening according to guidelines. The underlying factors of poor cancer screening rates and health outcomes among Asian ethnic groups remain poorly understood. We therefore examined cancer screening participation rates and screening behaviour in a multi-ethnic Singapore population. Methods: We collected data from 7,125 respondents of the 2015-2016 Singapore Community Health Study. Factors associated with cervical, breast, and colorectal cancer screening were evaluated using modified Poisson regression. Adjusted prevalence ratios were computed with 95% confidence intervals after adjusting for confounders. Results: The respondents’ mean age was 57.7±10.9 years, 58.9% were female and were predominately Chinese (73.0%), followed by Malay (14.2%