Screening for Colon Cancer---Present Situation and Problems Confronting Gifu Prefecture / 日本農村医学会雑誌

ABSTRACT

As a health care measure for the people in the prime of life, the Ministry of Health and Welfare (now the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare) of the Japanese government started off the first 5-year program for the senior citizens in 1983 with the enforcement of the Law Concerning Health and Medical Services for the Aged, followed by the second five-year program in 1988 and the third eight-year program in 1992. The screening project for colon cancer was incorporated in the third program with a target set of holding an increasing rate of morbidity at zero in a year-to-year comparison. The response rate to colon cancer screening (the ratio of the number of participants responding to colon cancer screening to the total number of qualified persons) was also to be raised steadily to reach a target of 30% in 1999. In Gifu Prefecture, the total number of examinees in 1999 increased twice the figure in 1992, but the response rate was 14.8%, which was only about half the target and below the national average of 15.3%. The detection ratio of colon cancer and the early cancer ratio in the prefecture were much the same as the national average. It could be taken that there is nothing wrong as far as the precision of screeming and management are concernd. To decrease the rate of mortality from cancer of the colon, the most important is to raise the response rate. For this purpose, we would like to propose that the cost should be covered by national health insurance in those health screening projects approved of by the competent authorities.