Different impacts of cancer types on cancer screening during COVID-19 pandemic in Taiwan

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic has rapidly become a major challenge for global health care systems and affected other priorities such as the utilization of population-based cancer screening services. We sought to examine to what extent the COVID-19 pandemic has affected cancer screening utilization in Taiwan, even the use of inreach and outreach screening services for different types of cancer screening and different regions. METHODS: Using nationwide cervical, breast, colorectal and oral cancer screening data, the percentage changes in screening participants at inreach and outreach services were calculated and compared between January to April 2020 (COVID-19 pandemic) and January to April 2019. RESULTS: The average percentage change declined from 15% to 40% for cervical, breast, and colorectal cancer screening, with a nearly 50% decline in oral cancer screening. There was a greater preference for breast and colorectal cancer screening outreach services, which had greater accessibility and declined less than inreach services in most regions. The screening utilization varied in different regions, especially in eastern Taiwan where the less convenient transportation and lower risk of COVID-19 transmission had a positive change on four types of cancer screening outreach services. CONCLUSION: The COVID-19 pandemic may have had an effect not only in the utilization of different types of cancer screening but also in the preference between inreach and outreach services, and even in variations in screening services in different regions.