Observational Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2018. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Nov 7, 2018; 24(41): 4708-4715
Published online Nov 7, 2018. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v24.i41.4708
Willingness to pay for colorectal cancer screening in Guangzhou
Qin Zhou, Yan Li, Hua-Zhang Liu, Ying-Ru Liang, Guo-Zhen Lin
Qin Zhou, Yan Li, Hua-Zhang Liu, Ying-Ru Liang, Guo-Zhen Lin, Department of Non-communicable Chronic Disease Control and Prevention, Guangzhou Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Guangzhou 510440, Guangdong Province, China
Author contributions: Zhou Q, Li Y, Liu HZ, and Lin GZ conceived of and designed the study; Zhou Q and Liang YR performed the data collection, statistical analyses, and data interpretation; Zhou Q drafted the manuscript; all authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province, No. 2016A030313504; and Guangzhou Science and Technology Program Key Project, No. 201707010205.
Institutional review board statement: The study was reviewed and approved by the ethics committee of the Guangzhou Center of Disease Control and Prevention.
Informed consent statement: Written informed consent to participate in the study was obtained from all participants.
Conflict-of-interest statement: There are no conflicts of interest to report.
Data sharing statement: We declare that the datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
STROBE statement: The authors have read the STROBE Statement-checklist of items, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the STROBE Statement-checklist of items.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Qin Zhou, MD, Occupational Physician, Research Scientist, Staff Physician, Statistical Worker, Technician, Department of Non-communicable Chronic Disease Control and Prevention, Guangzhou Center for Disease Control and Prevention, No. 1, Qide Road, Baiyun district, Guangzhou 510440, Guangdong Province, China. zhouq@gzcdc.org.cn
Telephone: +86-20-36055856 Fax: +86-20-37431722
Received: July 23, 2018
Peer-review started: July 23, 2018
First decision: August 27, 2018
Revised: September 1, 2018
Accepted: October 5, 2018
Article in press: October 5, 2018
Published online: November 7, 2018
Abstract
AIM

To measure the willingness to pay for colorectal cancer screening in Guangzhou, and to identify those factors associated with it.

METHODS

A face-to-face questionnaire survey for pre-screening population from free and non-free colonoscopy districts was used to collect information on demographic characteristics, health behaviours, the intention of the cancer screenings and willingness to pay for colorectal cancer screening. A total of 1243 participants who took part in the pre-screening for colorectal cancer in Guangzhou were collected in the study. Categorical data were compared using the χ2 test to analyse significant differences. Non-conditional logistic regression and multi-class logistic regression were also performed for multivariate analysis and to estimate the odds ratios.

RESULTS

The percentage of participants willing to pay for colorectal cancer screening was 91.7%. “Unnecessary” was the dominant reason that participants gave for their unwillingness, accounting for 63.1%. Of those who were willing to pay, 29.2%, 20.7%, 14.8%, 13.0% and 22.4% of participants were willing to pay less than \100, \100-\199, \200-299, \300-\399 and more than \400, respectively. Non-logistic regression analysis showed that respondents who were male, had a high level of education, were from the family with more children/older to raise, and accepted colorectal cancer screening were willing to pay for this screening. Multi-class logistic regression analysis showed that respondents with higher annual household income per capita, from government and private enterprises, government agency/institution and peasants, and less family medical expenditure were willing to pay more.

CONCLUSION

Willingness to pay for colorectal cancer screening in Guangzhou is high, but the amount of willing to pay is not much.

Keywords: Colorectal cancer, Screening, Willingness to pay, Guangzhou, Factor

Core tip: The uptake of colorectal cancer screening is very important for the screening effect. For a mass screening program, however, it is not possible to offer the screenings free of charge. This study was conducted to measure the willingness to pay for colorectal cancer screening in Guangzhou and to identify those factors associated with it. There were 1243 participants collected in the study. The percentage of participants willing to pay for colorectal cancer screening was high, but the amount of willing to pay was not much, and less than the cost of colonoscopy.