Views
The Cancer Awareness Measure (CAM) is a validated survey developed by Kings University, UCL and Cancer Research UK. The CAM was carried out in North Tyneside in winter 2021 with over 400 individuals surveyed, making up a representative sample of the borough population. The CAM covers awareness of signs and symptoms of cancer, factors affecting making an appointment, risk factors for cancers and awareness of the cancer screening programmes.
Awareness of the bowel cancer screening programme is 2 out of 3 amongst the over 60s, which is in line with the borough screening uptake of 71.8%.
This data shows that awareness is lowest amongst the routine manual and non-working population and men which mirrors national evidence of bowel screening awareness and uptake. It is similarly expected that awareness of the bowel cancer screening programme is highest amongst those who are invited to participate. It is therefore reasonable to expect awareness of the bowel cancer screening programme to increase amongst the 30-59 age group as the screening population is extended to 50–59-year-olds in the coming years.
The geographical variation noted was not statistically significant but may benefit from further exploration to understand the lower reported awareness in the Killingworth / North West locality of the borough. The uptake within this primary care network varies by a similar amount to the rest of the borough, with only one primary care network seeming to have less internal variation, Table 1.