Ithaca College

Srijana Bajracharya from the Department of Health Promotion and Physical Education published an article titled, “Knowledge, Perceived Benefits and Barriers of College Employees Regarding Colorectal Cancer (CRC) Screening: A Replication Study” in a peer reviewed journal, International Journal of Health, Wellness, and Society. This paper was presented at the International Conference on Health, Wellness & Society, in Madrid, Spain, in 2015.

The purpose of this project was to replicate a previous study and examine current employees’ knowledge and perception regarding CRC issues and find out if there is any difference between the results from two studies. The main reason for this research was to find out what current population’s needs are so that targeted CRC educational workshops can be planned for them.

Results indicated that after almost ten years since the last observation, there was no improvement in knowledge scores on the CRC and CRC screening among college employees. Thirty-nine percent of the participants had not had CRC screening test. About 65% of those who never had CRC screening and about 89% of those who already had CRC screening, the top perceived barrier to CRC screening was “procrastination.” Approximately fifty-eight percent expressed their interest in attending workshops that focus on CRC prevention strategies, fifty percent on nutrition education, and about thirty percent on the information about CRC screening.

Because of the recent reports of CRC related deaths locally and Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER, 2016) registry data on cancer incidence and mortality among adults younger than 50 years in the USA, it is imperative that health agencies as well as academic institutions provide their support for the worksite health programs on this issue.  Based on the above findings, a series of CRC prevention programs should be developed for college employees on a regular basis.