Preventive health service use among survivors of adolescent and young adult cancer

Preventive health screenings are essential for survivors of adolescent and young adult (AYA) cancer survivors, who are at greater risk for non-cancer related death compared to individuals without a history of cancer. However, little research exists examining their use of screening services. In order to identify potential areas for targeted improvements in AYA survivorship care, we examined adherence to United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) screening recommendations among members of Kaiser Permanente Southern California. The study population included individuals diagnosed with cancer between ages 15–39 from 2000 to 2012 who survived at least two years post-diagnosis (n = 6779) and a matched cohort of non-cancer comparisons (n = 25640). To assess adherence to screening services, we calculated a Prevention Index (PI, proportion of person-time covered by receipt of recommended clinical preventive services relative to the time eligible) for every individual and the distributions for each service. We also evaluated predictors for adherence using logistic regression. Adherence was significantly (p-value < 0.05) higher among survivors than non-cancer subjects for screenings for dyslipidemia (71.16% and 65.94, respectively), hypertension (97.43% and 89.11%), cervical cancer (87.36% and 84.45%), colorectal cancer (83.23% and 58.27%), and influenza vaccination (36.79% and 33.21%). The logistic regression showed that survivors were significantly more likely to adhere to guidelines compared to non-cancer peers for all screenings except breast cancer, with the greatest difference found for colorectal cancer (odds ratio: 5.04, p-value: <0.01). While AYA survivors appear to use preventive screenings more than comparisons, there is room for improvement for certain services, most notably for influenza vaccination.