PUBLIC ATTITUDES TO COLONOSCOPY: EMBARRASSMENT LEVELS AND COLONOSCOPY

Aims:

European public beliefs and attitudes to colonoscopy are poorly understood. A survey was conducted to better understand the issue.

Methods:

An online survey was conducted in the UK, Germany, France, Spain, and Italy among members of the general public who had not had a colonoscopy and also those who had undergone a colonoscopy in the last five years. One of the ten questions to both groups asked: Please indicate how strongly you agree or disagree with the following statements? 'I would be embarrassed to have a colonoscopy'.

The survey targeted 500 people that had not had a colonoscopy and 100 people that have undergone a colonoscopy in the last five years in each country. The survey targeted people aged 18 to 70 and aimed to balance respondent groups for region, gender, age and occupation.

Results:

Among 53,795 invited persons, 18,650 (35%) responded to the survey, 2,500 (5%) completed the survey who had never had a colonoscopy before and 500 (1%) completed the survey who had a colonoscopy in the last five years across the five assessed EU countries.

Despite the experience of colonoscopy being better than anticipated (59% felt it was better than expected) 43% of respondents who have had a colonoscopy noted that they'd be embarrassed to have another compared with 59% of those that haven't had a colonoscopy.

Response levels differed across the countries, notably the embarrassment levels in both groups between Spain and Germany. 66% from Spain who had undergone a colonoscopy and 78% who haven't would be embarrassed to undergo the procedure, compared with 29% and 38% respectively in Germany.

Conclusions:

Embarrassment doesn't disappear following a colonoscopy. Despite the experience of colonoscopy being better than anticipated, two in five adults would still be embarrassed to have another colonoscopy.