Association Between Adherence to Cancer Screening and Knowledge of Screening Guidelines: Feasibility Study Linking Self-Reported Survey Data With Medical Records

BACKGROUND: It is possible that patients who are more aware of cancer screening guidelines may be more likely to adhere to them. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to determine whether screening knowledge was associated with the documented screening participation. We also assessed the feasibility and acceptability of linking electronic survey data with clinical data in the primary care setting. METHODS: We conducted an electronic survey at 2 sites in Toronto, Canada. At one site, eligible patients were approached in the waiting room to complete the survey; at the second site, eligible patients were sent an email inviting them to participate. All participants were asked to consent to the linkage of their survey results with their electronic medical record. RESULTS: Overall, 1683 participants responded to the survey—247 responded in the waiting room (response rate, 247/366, 67.5%), whereas 1436 responded through email (response rate, 1436/5779, 24.8%). More than 80% (199/247 and 1245/1436) of participants consented to linking their survey data to their medical record. Knowledge of cancer screening guidelines was generally low. Although the majority of participants were able to identify the recommended tests for breast and cervical screening, very few participants correctly identified the recommended age and frequency of screening, with a maximum of 22% (21/95) of screen-eligible women correctly answering all 3 questions for breast cancer screening. However, this low level of knowledge among patients was not significantly associated with screening uptake, particularly after adjustment for sociodemographic characteristics. CONCLUSIONS: Although knowledge of screening guidelines was low among patients in our study, this was not associated with screening participation. Participants were willing to link self-reported data with their medical record data, which has substantial implications for future research.