Screening currently collects information gained from General Practice registers in order to invite eligible participants. This means that we currently hold data to be able to examine inequity in uptake by age (as we collect date of birth), gender, and geographical location (as we know home address and also GP practice location) and can derive an area-based measure of deprivation.
We present data one programme at a time, looking at the following measures:
Geographical Area
Screening is delivered as all Wales programmes across all seven health board geographical areas. Screening programmes are delivered using different access models including home-based screening, primary care delivery and screening venues in healthcare centres and mobile clinics. To understand if screening is taken up equally across Wales, uptake/coverage has been explored by geographical location of eligible participants. Geographical location is defined using the home address of the invited participant then allocated to health board and local authority.
Deprivation
We are looking at deprivation using the Welsh Index of Multiple Deprivation, WIMD. A score is assigned taking into account a number of different indicators including income and employment, based on the small area (Local Super Output Area) where the participant lives. In this report, Quintile 1 refers to those living in the least deprived fifth of LSOAs in Wales and Quintile 5 refers to those living in the most deprived fifth of LSOAs in Wales.
Age
The three cancer screening programmes and Diabetic Eye Screening Wales invite participants on an interval basis. Uptake/coverage can therefore be explored for different age groups. The age of invited participants will also influence what type of invite the individual has received, as the youngest age groups will be invited for the first time and older age groups will be invited for a recall appointment.
Gender
The eligibility for the bowel and diabetic eye screening programmes is not dependent on gender, so differences in uptake can be explored using the gender that is recorded on the GP system.
Information about screening for people who are trans or non-binary can be found here: Information for people who are Transgender or Non-Binary - Public Health Wales (nhs.wales)
Type of Invitation
The different types of invitation that we are looking at are those invited for the first time, those who have been invited before but did not take up the invitation (previous non-responder), and those that have been invited before and have taken part before (previous responder). This is interesting to explore so that we can see whether behaviours are different in the different groups and whether we could benefit from targeting interventions at a specific group.